From leaving your mobile in the back of a taxi to having it swiped at a coffee shop, phone theft or loss is hardly a rare occurrence. Kaspersky Lab is looking to address the security ramifications of that reality with an app for Android users, dubbed Phound!
iPhone users can use the Find My iPhone feature, but there’s no such official function for Android devices. That leaves users to find reliable third-party apps for doing so. Kaspersky’s entry into the space helps find a lost gadget and keep any valuable information stored on it away from prying eyes.
According to a survey of internet users, over a one-year period, one in 20 consumers—and as many as one in six for some countries—have lost their smartphone or tablet as a result of carelessness or theft. Over one third (38%) of users admit that their devices contain confidential data that they would definitely not want to fall into the wrong hands, including financial data (stored by 19% of respondents) and login details and passwords for accessing email, social networks and other profiles (30%).
Derived from the words Phone and Hound, the Phound! app offers gadget owners the ability to control their devices and the data stored on them remotely, via the My Kaspersky portal. If a device is lost or stolen, users can quickly block it to prevent unauthorized access, as well as using GPS, GSM or Wi-Fi networks to find its position on the map. To make searching for the device easier, users can also remotely take pictures with the front camera or bring up a message on the device’s screen.
If the phone or tablet was lost at home or in the office, it can be found with the help of the Alarm feature—the device makes a loud sound and continues until the owner enters a secret code.
It also has a remote wiping function, in case efforts to locate the phone fail. As a last resort (or first resort, depending on the sensitivity of the information at stake), the owner can use Phound! to remove all personal data from the device and the SD card remotely, including contacts, messages and photos, as well as perform a hard reset of the device, if required.
“For many users, mobile devices serve as storage for their most valuable and important data—contacts of friends and colleagues, personal messages, private photos and many other things,” said Alexey Chikov, senior product manager at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. “This means that today’s smartphones and tablets need the same security as a bank vault. However, unlike bank vaults, smartphones are small, portable and easily misplaced. That is why we created a solution for our users to prevent their mobile ‘vault’ from falling into the wrong hands.”
Kaspersky Phound! is available in eight languages from Google Play Store.