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Europe or North America and more than $1,000 in the Far East. At the same time, he’ll have a good shot at clearing out your bank account. Until about a year ago, half of all thefts in the USA involved mobile devices, while over in London, 10,000 smartphones were stolen every month. As you can see, stolen phones generate a great deal of income for the gangs that carry out these thefts. They also generate business for the manufacturers, up to $30 billion a year in replacement phones in the USA alone.

Perhaps this explains why manufacturers were reluctant to implement kill-switches that enable all phones to be turned off remotely if they are stolen or lost until prompted to do so by legislation. Kill-switches In most forms of technology, a kill-switch is a single command or button that can shut down a complicated system almost immediately. On a smartphone, that’s the power off command. There are really two different kinds of kill-switches for smartphones – a hard kill-switch that permanently bricks a phone, and a soft alternative that makes a phone unusable to all but the legitimate owner. All you need is access to a computer, tablet, laptop or another smartphone to activate the kill-switch remotely.

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Kill-switches work. Apple added a kill-switch to its devices in September 2013. In the following 12 months, the number of stolen iPhones dropped by 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in York. In London, smartphone theft fell by 50 percent.

So far, Apple, Samsung and Google have implemented kill-switches on their smartphones, and Microsoft is expected to release an operating system with a kill-switch for its Windows phones in 2015. Protect your smartphone Don’t let the improving statistics make you complacent. The chances that your smartphone can be lost or stolen are still very high. Indeed 44 percent of thefts are due to absent-minded owners leaving their phones in public places. Here are a few things you can do to protect your smartphone and any sensitive information it may contain: [1] Secure your data …

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using a simple 4-digit PIN code or password to lock the phone’s screen. If you use a screen lock that does not require a code to access the phone, you are leaving your contact, text messages, email and social networking accounts open to anyone who gets your phone. [2] Make a contact sheet… use your smartphone’s wallpaper (the face you see in the screen when you pick it up) as a contact-me sheet listing your name, an alternate phone number, email address and a financial reward for returning it. [3] Backup your data …

to your computer on a regular basis. The simplest way to backup your stuff (picture, contact details etc) is to plug your smartphone into a computer using a USB cord. Then, drag and drop items from the device onto your desktop. Fortunately these days, more phones automatically backing up your contacts and data online, such as with Android devices that link to your Google account and Apple connecting to iTunes and iCloud.

[4] Install tracking software … using tracking applications that allow you to locate your phone on a map if it’s lost or stolen. Some even let you display a message, remotely lock your device and play a loud alarm sound, even if it’s set to silent. You can find out more from you local mobile phone shop. [5] Use a kill-switch…

by getting a phone with a kill-switch or activating the kill-switch you have already. Note that some smartphone systems require consumers to opt in for the kill-switch, ie they are not protected when the phones are operating in the default mode. [6] Be careful when installing apps…

and make sure they are safe.

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