Most of us spend a lot of time looking at our phones. Try keeping your handset in a different room for a while and see how long it takes before you start feeling some separation anxiety. Not only is it strange to be away from your phone, but it’s also a real worry it could get lost or stolen. Think about all of the private and personal information stored on the device, from conversations with your closest friends and family members to details of your current bank balance and ways of transferring money anywhere in the world.
So when your phone gets lost or stolen, it’s serious—it’s more than a mild inconvenience. If you no longer have access to it for whatever reason, here’s what to do next to ensure your accounts and information stay secure.
Lock your phone remotely
Whether your phone runs iOS or Android, you can lock it remotely—assuming you’ve put in the prep work beforehand. On an iPhone, head to Face/Touch ID & Passcode from Settings to protect your lock screen, and turn on Stolen Device Protection, which means authentication is required for more features on your phone. From Settings, you should also tap your name and then Find My so you can locate your phone remotely.
On Android, for Pixel phones, open Settings, then tap Security and privacy, then Device unlock (for lock screen protections) and Device finders (for remote access). For Galaxy phones, open Settings and choose Security and privacy, then Lock screen (for lock screen settings) and Lost device protection (for getting at your phone remotely). Enabling these features makes your life much easier if your phone is lost or stolen.
If you get separated from your iPhone, find a web browser and open iCloud on the web. Head to the Find My section: You’ll be able to see the last reported location for your handset and enable Lost Mode (which gives whoever finds the device some details to get it back to you). You can also remotely wipe the device, which ensures no one else can access it.
For Android, you’ve got Find My Device for Google phones and SmartThings Find for Samsung phones. The options on these portals are similar to the Apple one: You can lock your phone remotely if you think someone might find it and want to return it to you, or you can wipe it remotely if you think that’s unlikely to happen. You can also try tracking down your phone on the map, though we wouldn’t recommend confronting any thieves yourself.
Reset your account logins
If you’ve followed all the steps above, the chances of someone else gaining access to your messages, emails, bank details, and other sensitive information should be minimal—unless they’ve somehow managed to clone your face or your fingerprint. However, it’s better to be overly cautious than complacent when it comes to the security of your various accounts.
You might want to consider changing your password on your most important apps. This will automatically log you out of your account on the other devices you’re logged in on (including your lost or stolen phone). At the same time, you should also turn on two-step authentication on any accounts where it’s available if you haven’t already done so.
If you can log into your accounts on another device, you can often remotely sign out of all other places from there. On Instagram on the web, for example, you can click Where you’re logged in to sign out of your devices—it’s actually a good idea to regularly review these lists to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
Google and Apple also cover this pretty well. For Google accounts (including Android logins), head to the Security page on the Google dashboard on the web and click Manage all devices. On macOS, meanwhile, open the Apple menu and choose System Settings to see a list of all the devices you’re logged into (and to sign out remotely if you need to).
Contact the people who matter
In addition to the steps we’ve already mentioned, contacting a few key people and companies does no harm to let them know that your phone might be in someone else’s hands. If they can somehow access everything on your handset, then it’s a pretty significant security risk.
Contacting your carrier is a good start because they can block your number and ensure nothing is charged to your account. Once someone has access to your cell number, if it’s left active, they can use it to impersonate you in numerous ways—and they can intercept any authorization codes sent to your phone.
Then there’s your bank. Just about all banking and mobile payment apps are protected with biometric identification these days, so the risk of someone going on a spending spree with your phone should be relatively low. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your money.
Last, but not least, it’s worth contacting friends and family to let them know that communications that appear to be coming from you might not actually be coming from you. It means the people in your social circle can be more on their guard against potential scams (like messages requesting money or with phishing links in them).
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