Ask Slashdot: How Can I Prepare For the Theft of My Android Phone?

New submitter Adam Jorgensen writes "Last week my 4-week old Moto G phone was stolen while getting onto the train at Salt River in Cape Town, South Africa. That in itself is no big deal. Cellphone theft is a huge problem here in South Africa and I've had at least two previous cellphones stolen. The big deal this time, for me at least, was that this was the first time I've lost an Android phone to theft. When I actually sat down and thought about it, losing a fully configured Android phone is actually a big deal as it provides ready access to all kinds of accounts, including ones Google account. This could potentially allow the thief to engage in all kinds of malicious behavior, some of which could have major implications beyond the scope of the theft.

Luckily for me it seems that the thief did the usual thing: Dumped the SIM card, wiped the phone, and switched it off. It's probably had its IMEI changed by now and been sold on to some oblivious punter, possibly some oblivious punter in another country. Still, the potential for serious issue is making me have second thoughts about replacing the phone with anything capable of doing much more than calling. My question is this: Are there any serious solutions out there for Android that secure against theft?"

He continues:

By serious I mean solutions that go beyond the laughably easy to defeat 'Find My Phone' and 'Remote Wipe' options provided at present. Presently I'm thinking along the lines of:

• Full encryption of phone contents
• Some kind of 'Travel Safe' mode that would lock the phone down and trigger a full wipe of not unlocked correctly (Including wiping the phone on next boot if not unlocked before being switched off/running out of battery).

So, any ideas?"

Comments

Public kiosk

[pla]

Simple answer: Treat your phone/tablet as only slightly more trusted than logged in from a semi-public PC, such as at a library.

I pretty much only log in to anything from my Android tablet via a browser in private browsing mode / incognito. I can then do everything through the browser that TFS' author presumably uses pre-logged-in native apps to do. Email, IM, cloud storage... I use them all, I just don't have my device set up to one-click root-my-life.

I don't even bother with a password on the thing - It wastes more of my time than that of a potential thief. If someone nabs it, hey, they get a few gigs of music (that I have backups of) and a $50 (replacement value - they don't tend to age well) tablet. Woo-hoo.

Re:Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

None of the things will protect against theft.

The thief will still pick your pocket. When they get back to their evil lair, they will find it is password protected. If they try to break the protection (which is easy with the right tools) they will find it is encrypted. Then they will trash the device or perhaps attempt to sell it. For you it doesn't matter, your device is still stolen and must be replaced.

There are tons of tools out there to make backups so restoration is easy on a new device. But your device is still stolen and must be replaced.

Encryption has jack shit to do with recovering the hardware.

Your data and personal information contained on the phone can be proven far more valuable and far more difficult to recover from if leaked.

Neither of these facts belie your ignorance here. Use your damn head. Encryption helps mitigate a rather specific problem with phone theft.

Re:Rooted?

[camperdave]

Did you ever think that some of the Ask Slashdot topics exist to provoke discussion rather than to seek knowledge? Take this one for example. How many folks here have never thought about anti-theft software until now? I'm sure I'm not the only one.