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Jack of All Trades, Master of Many

Jack of All Trades, and Master of Many

We provide technical support for:


Homes and small businesses

Windows and the Mac OS platform

iPhones and Android Smartphones

Wireless and wired networks

New device setup

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How To Stop Malware

Monday, March 26, 2012

iPhone, iPad or Mac Book Stolen? Now what?

We hope this never happens to you, but preparing for this event beforehand will make things a little bit easier after the robbery.


Recovery of the device:

Record all the serial numbers for your devices and keep them in a safe place. If you devices are recovered by the police, they can identify them as belonging to you.

Deny access to your personal data:

Find Me
Is the "Find Me" function set up and turned on for your device? A while back, there was controversy concerning your privacy because Apple knew where you were by knowing where your device was. Many people saw this as an invasion of privacy and turned the function off. If you want to find your missing device, simply turn the function back on. Remotely, you can lock the device, wipe the device or send a message to be displayed on the device.

It is not hard to turn this feature off. Once the theft has occurred, you need to act fast while you still have remote control over your device.

Passwords to Access Device
Did you create a passcode for your iPad or iPhone?  Do the user accounts on your Mac Book require a password to access them?

The only way to use an iPad or iPhone without knowing the passcode is to reset the device to the factory settings. This process will wipe out your personal data.

If you have an installation disk for your MacBook, you can reset the password for a user account. Once the password is reset, access to your personal data is not restricted. Unless your data is encrypted, anyone who has access to your computer can read your data. The Mac Operating System has built into it, the means to encrypt data. Details on encrypting data will be covered in a future blog.

Did you create a document called passwords that contains all the username and passwords to your online accounts. The thief now has access to that list. I hope you backed up the password document so that you can access a copy. As fast as you can, access all your online accounts and change the passwords.

Summary
  1. Record serial numbers of all your devices and store them in a safe place.
  2. Turn on "Find Me" for all your devices.
  3. Create and use a "Passcode" for your iPad and iPhone.
  4. Create passwords for all user accounts on your Mac Book.
  5. Encrypt sensitive personal data on your Mac Book.
  6. Store your online access passwords in more than one place so that you can change those passwords quickly if your accounts have been compromised.
Carl Thorne
Expert Computer Consulting