Top tips

• When using your phone, remain aware of your surroundings and do not use it in crowded areas or where you feel unsafe.
• The 15-digit serial or IMEI number helps to identify your phone. You can find out a phone's IMEI number by keying *#06# into most phones or by looking behind the phone's battery. Make a note of your phone's IMEI number and keep it separate from your phone, as this number could help the police to trace ownership quickly if it is stolen.
• If you get your mobile phone back after it has been lost, stolen or confiscated be careful to ensure that monitoring software has not been installed on the phone since you last had it in your possession.
• Always use your phone's security lock codes or PIN numbers and do not reveal the numbers to anyone.
• If you are concerned about being monitored or your work is very sensitive, buy an anonymous SIM card such as a pay-as-you-go card, using cash, if possible. Consider changing your number regularly.
• If you are concerned about security make it routine to delete the information on your phone. Check the settings on the phone to see if can be set so that it does not store call logs and outgoing SMS.
• If you do not want your movements to be traceable consider turning the phone off at certain times. From time to time, leave the phone in one place while establishing your presence elsewhere, so that activity on the phone cannot necessarily be linked to you.
• If you're not concerned about the sensitivity of your communications and activities then you could consider registering your phone with the operator because then if you report your phone stolen, the operator should then be able to stop further use of your phone.
• Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you're outdoors. These functions are easy to exploit for sending malicious code or viruses. It's also possible that sensitive information could be intercepted by a sniffer when these functions are enabled. The safest place to use these functions is at home or in trusted locations.
• Watch for unauthorized GPRS connections. If you find your phone is auto-connected to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), then your mobile might be infected with a virus that is sending your data to other parties. If you discover this problem, disconnect the device immediately and install anti-virus software to remove the malware.
• It's a good practice to make frequent backups of data stored on mobile devices including your address book.
• You can use three different methods to back up your data to your computer:
  • Infrared connection
  • Bluetooth connection
  • Cable provided with your phone

Once the connection with your computer is established you can backup the data either using software provided with your phone or a free/Open source backup application downloaded from the internet. You can also use a sim card reader which copies the information from your sim card to a separate device.

• If you're not working on sensitive activities and you don't mind being traced by your phone if you lost or misplaced it, then you could consider security-marking the battery (and phone) with your postcode and street number or the first two letters of your house name.