Protecting your smartphone against identity theft

Consumers are increasingly conducting ecommerce and online banking through their smartphones. The technology makes such activity easier for the user, but it also opens up consumers to a greater risk of identity theft. To help protect consumers' phones and sensitive information, John Sileo released his Smartphone Survival Guide. Sileo warns against risky application downloads. He says consumers should vet their downloads before putting them on a phone. Additionally, Sileo says it's important to incorporate the proper encryption and identity verification in case your phone is lost or stolen. "Once you download a Trojan app, the thief has more control over your phone than you do," Sileo said. "Your privacy is an open book ... your identity, contact list, files, emails, texts, passwords … all of it. This doesn't just threaten the individual phone owner, it threatens the organizations they work in and the data they handle every day." Arguably, Sileo's most important suggestion is to enable your phone to be remotely deleted. Should you lose your phone or have it stolen, "remote wipe capabilities" will allow to you clear all sensitive information stored on your phone.