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Ever reached into your bag or pocket to send an email or SMS and realised you had lost your smartphone? You quickly try and remember when you last used it, retracing your steps in your head. Sometimes you get fortunate and an honest person put’s it out of harm’s way until you return for it, but did you ever consider ‘what if?’ rather than just ‘lucky me’.

Times have changed, less than a decade ago losing your phone would have been a mere irritation a small dent in the wallet, a call to your network provider and a few days reacquainting yourself with a landline. Today it could cause a very stressful and anxious situation.

For most of us, our smartphones are like a lifeline. Losing a phone isn’t just losing a device anymore. Nowadays, it means that anyone in possession of your phone has the potential to access entire stores of contacts, texts, photos, social networking accounts, personal and business information and even your credit card details. Furthermore as technology continues to develop with the arrival of NFC chips, misuse of your phone as a cash card is very likely as well. It’s no longer just your smartphone you are losing it’s as if someone has stolen your wallet and laptop too.

Now let’s face it, none of us are going to revert back to basic handsets, we are too use to having instant access to emails, twitter, Facebook and the web but what we can’t afford to do is ignore the fact that the mini-computer we carry around with us holds incredible amounts of sensitive information, which in the wrong hands leaves us vulnerable.

Unfortunately it’s not just the conventional opportunistic thief we need to be worried about; continuous access to the web puts us in front of thousands of cyber-criminals all over the world who are fighting to get hold of your personal data without the need to get the hands on your device. Cyber-crime is estimated to be the second biggest economy in the world.

The good news is we don’t have to cut ourselves off from the digital world there are simple precautions we can take to protect ourselves and become a bit more shrewd about our internet security.

Simple tips:

• Don’t loan your phone to strangers, or even friends. No one watches out for your devices like you do.
• Have a phone case that you always use so you’re less likely to set it down absent-mindedly.
• Password protect your phone so it’s less appealing to a thief.
• Download Anti Theft & Data Recovery Software which allows users to disable a smartphone if stolen so information cannot be accessed, it recovers your data and tracks the phones whereabouts.
• Password manager software is useful to store sensitive log in details which get encrypted.
• Antivirus Software is becoming essential, with cyber criminals creating malicious apps, whilst being savvy on giving apps permissions can go a long way, security software is a much needed line of defence.
• If stolen call the police  with the specific details of  the phone so it can be returned to you if found, sold, or discovered in an arrest, and make sure to activate your Anti Theft Software which will produce you a report of where your smartphone has been tracked to and aid their investigation.
• Don’t forget, it’s still important to notify the network provider if your smartphone is lost or stolen.

Protecting your smartphone needs to become as routine as locking the front door as you leave your home, that way you won’t experience a panic attack every time you pad down your pockets or delve deep into your bag for it to no avail!