Keeping your stuff safe

Keeping your stuff safe

Keeping your stuff safe, either actual things or your online accounts is something we should always be mindful about.  “Hands off my stuff” is, essentially, my mantra to my teens.   We have all read or heard stories of children borrowing stuff and it coming back broken, bits snapped off, or not at all, so I now have a real “hands off” approach.

Even to borrowing to be honest.   My dad let my teens borrow his new iPad when he last came over and so they changed the settings to announce his name as “Pompadilious Doo Dah” and refused to tell him how to change it back to a simple “Neil”.   He has to hide it now when he goes into meetings and pretend he doesn’t have an iPad for fear of being ribbed and having to admit he was owned by three teenagers.

Schoolboy error.   And one that I would never make.   My stuff is my stuff and nobody touches it.   Ever.   Clothes, shoes, make up, phone, Kindle, laptop.   Back off buddy.

So I thought I would give you my top tips for keeping valuables safe.

1)  Put a password on EVERYTHING and don’t share it with anyone.   I have them on anything with a screensaver.  And make sure it goes on as soon as the device has been idle for a minute.  If you set it to ten minutes you find yourself in danger of being compromised the minute you go to the loo and leave your phone on the coffee table.

2)  Talking of loos.  Don’t put your phone in your jeans pocket. You know what is going to happen.  At worst it falls down the loo.  At best it falls on the floor of a public loo.  And well that is not a picture that needs to be painted too graphically.   Similarly don’t balance it on the sink.  Trust me on this.

3)  Having put a password on your device don’t then let a teen borrow it to take a picture.   Or in fact give it to them to take pictures of you.  I made this mistake once and when I scrolled back I had the one picture of me and 87 selfies.

4) When out in public don’t leave it on a table in full view.  There are lots of scams where they get stolen by somebody coming along and putting a newspaper or menu over it and then picking it up with nobody seeing.   I don’t know about you but my phone IS my life  and to lose it would be devastating.  Not only all the phone numbers in it but all the photos.  And it has been everywhere with me in the past few years.  It tells a story and I am sentimentally attached to it.  To have somebody come along and nick it would make me kick myself for a long time.  And possibly a kitten and we don’t want that to happen.

5) Get your stuff insured.  Honestly, women don’t really think about the value of their handbags but when you add up the cost of replacing the phone, an iPad, a Kindle, an iPod, a purse, even the handbag itself, it can add up to £1000, if not more.     You can get insurance really easily these days, even when you take out bank accounts it can come with insurance.  It really couldn’t be more simple.   Then should the worst happen you know that replacement is just a phone call away.

Those are my top tips for keeping valuables safe, do you have any to add?  I would love to hear if you do.

Photograph of online security courtesy of Shutterstock