Smartphones and tablets are an essential part of our lives. Your smartphone or tablet is your alarm clock, game console, camera, office, calculator, entertainment center, navigation system and more. It’s likely that you have many personal files on your phone or tablet that you don’t want others to see.

You should take steps to ensure any sensitive information is not only protected from hackers, but also those around you. Don’t leave passwords and other sensitive information sitting in plain view on your device without password protection. You can easily set up passcodes to require user input before the device will unlock so that sensitive information is not accessible to just anyone who picks it up. This can be done through the settings menu on your phone or tablet.

You may be very aware of how you secure your computer, especially if it has anything to do with work. But what about your smartphone and tablet? Here are a few tips to keep in mind when it comes to protecting your personal files on these devices:

1. Lock your device. You can do this through a pattern or password that only you know, and this helps prevent unauthorized access if you happen to lose your device or if someone else gets ahold of it.

2. Use encryption. This will protect all the data on your device, so even if someone tries to hack into it, they won’t be able to read the files without knowing the password.

3. Back up your data. This way, if you ever need to wipe out everything on your device because of a security breach, you can download it again easily once things are back up and running securely

The idea of going paperless is something that has been around for a while. For many, the use of computers and tablets has made this possible. However, the problem with this is the importance of your personal data.

When you consider all of the different documents that we have to deal with in today’s world, all of them are stored on our computers, tablets or smartphones. These include bank statements, credit card statements and other financial information. Add to this medical records and tax information and you can see why it is so important to protect your personal files from identity theft.

While many people do not think about this aspect of digital life, it remains important to ensure that your personal files are safe from intruders. We take a look at some ways you can secure your personal files on your computer and smartphone:

By Paul Gil

If you use a tablet or smartphone, you’ve probably loaded it with photos, videos, and other files that are important to you. But what would happen if your device were lost or stolen? What if your home was burglarized? Even in the event of a simple hard drive crash, could you easily recover the information on your phone or tablet?

According to a recent study from Symantec Corp., only about 10% of U.S. consumers have installed a security app on their mobile devices. And about 70% of those who do have one haven’t configured it properly, or have turned off certain features.

To protect yourself and your data, you’ll need to take some steps to secure your devices and setup recovery systems in case something happens. Here’s what to do:

• Create a PIN code for each device. Use at least six digits and make sure the PIN isn’t easy to guess (such as 1-2-3-4-5-6). Most smartphones and tablets allow you to set the number of authentication attempts before the device wipes itself clean.

• Enable remote wiping. If you lose your device, remote wiping will erase all personal data on the phone or tablet—including your pictures, videos

Smartphones and tablets can be lost, stolen or hacked. To keep your data safe, you need to take a few precautions.

Be sure to install the latest security updates. This will prevent hackers from exploiting known bugs in your operating system (OS). Apple regularly releases OS updates that fix bugs and improve security; Android users should do the same.

Encrypting your data prevents snoops from accessing it. iPhone and iPad encrypt files automatically, but Android users must enable encryption themselves. Open Settings, select Security and then turn on Device Encryption. A tablet running Windows RT or Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise has similar features available. On Windows 8, open your PC settings and select General, then search for “encryption” and select Turn On BitLocker. Follow the prompts to encrypt your drive (or drives).

In addition to encrypting files on your device, you should also encrypt them before you send them via email. There are third-party apps like Secret Space Encryptor that allow you to protect files with a password before sending them via email attachment. If you use Google’s Gmail service, you can also use the SmartReply for Gmail app for iOS devices; this allows you to send encrypted messages directly from within the Gmail app by using a passphrase

It’s never been easier to lose your personal files, or so it seems. Many of us have smartphones that hold our email addresses and calendars, tablets that contain our photos and music collections, and laptops or PCs with our important documents. It’s not uncommon for us to be carrying around most of our files in one form or another with us everywhere we go.

What’s more, many of us are using cloud computing services such as iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox to store sensitive information. Although these cloud computing services provide access to our data from anywhere (and they backup our stuff), they also can make it easier to lose the data if a device is lost or stolen.

If you’re worried about losing your files, here are some tips to help keep them safe:

In a world where we are increasingly turning to our mobile devices for everything from banking, shopping and emailing, it is important that we know how to secure them. While modern smartphones and tablets all come with their own software solutions to help protect your data, there are some other tricks you can use to make sure your device is as secure as possible.

First, always use a pin or password on your lock screen; this may seem like obvious advice but many people still do not have one set up. While it can be inconvenient to enter a code every time you want to unlock your phone, it is the best way of preventing unauthorized access. You should also avoid using any easy-to-guess codes (such as 1-2-3-4) or anything that can be linked back to you (such as your birthday). Most phones will allow you to wipe their memory after a few failed password attempts so this could be disastrous if someone guesses the code.

Apps are another important consideration when securing your device. Many apps now want permission to do things such as accessing your location and recording audio; while these features can be useful, it is important that you know what an app will do before giving it permission. If an app does not need a particular