Protect Your Phone from Security Breaches Like Target

The recent breach of 40 million payment cards that belong to recent shoppers of Target serves as a firm reminder that businesses, big and small, need to keep information secure at all times.  With purchases taking place more frequently using mobile devices, it’s important to keep your smartphone protected as well.  Android has a built in key feature to help alleviate worries in the event that your device is stolen.

Encrypting your Android powered smartphone is an important step in maintaining the security of everything in your phone.  Images, customer information, financial data and more can all be found on your device.  Encrypting your phone will prevent all files on your phone from being accessed.  In fact, in individual won’t even be able to get past the point of the phone booting up without a password specified by you.

Once your device is turned, go the main settings menu > security > encrypt phone

The entire encryption process will take an hour to perform and it’s suggested that your phone stays charged during this time.  An hour without your device is worth a lifetime of security, so be patient.  Restart your smartphone once the procedure is complete to view the power of the encryption.  A prompt should appear that requires the proper credentials.  Without the correct password no files are visible to the phone, making it virtually useless.

The only way to break the encryption is to factory rest the device, which may occur in the event that it’s stolen.  A factory reset will restore the device to the state it was in when being taken out of the box for the first time.  In this instance it’s better to have a lost phone than to have your business’ data breached and in the wrong hands.