Device Security Basics: Lock the Car, Even in Your Own Driveway
You lock your car even when it’s parked in your own driveway. Not because you expect trouble — because it takes two seconds and it means you never have to think about it again.
That’s exactly the spirit of device security. Your phone and computer hold your email, your photos, your banking apps, probably your whole life. Protecting them doesn’t take expertise. It takes four habits, each about as hard as locking a car door. Let’s go through them.
Habit 1: Put a Lock on the Screen
Your phone’s screen lock — the PIN, fingerprint, or face unlock — is the first thing standing between a thief and everything on that phone. And I mean everything: your email (which can reset all your passwords), your saved cards, your photos, your text messages.
A phone with no screen lock isn’t a phone. It’s a wallet, a keyring, and a diary, sitting unlocked on a restaurant table.
Use a fingerprint or face unlock if your device has it — it’s both more secure and more convenient, which is a rare combo in this business. My house is an Apple house, and Face ID means my iPhone unlocks the moment I look at it; fingerprint unlock on Android and Windows Hello on PCs pull the same trick. If you’re using a PIN, make it six digits, and please don’t make it your birth year. Same goes for your computer: set it to require a password when it wakes up. Two seconds. Lock the car.
Habit 2: Say Yes to Updates (They’re Not Just Nagging You)
I know. The “update available” pop-up always shows up at the worst moment, like a toddler tugging your sleeve while you’re on the phone.
But here’s what updates mostly are: patches for security holes. When a company finds a weak spot in your phone or computer’s software, they send out a fix. The catch is, once the fix is announced, the bad guys know exactly where the hole is — and they go hunting for devices that haven’t patched it yet.
Updates are the weeding of the digital world. I garden, so believe me, I know the temptation to skip a week. But you can’t ignore the beds all summer and still expect tomatoes — and you can’t ignore updates all year and expect a healthy computer.
The painless fix: turn on automatic updates on your phone and computer, and let them do their thing overnight while the device charges. I’ve seen hundreds of infected machines over the years, and a huge share of them had one thing in common: updates postponed since sometime around the last presidential election.
Habit 3: Antivirus — Less Drama Than You Remember
Good news on this front: it’s gotten easier.
If you have a Windows computer, it already comes with built-in protection (Microsoft calls it Windows Security, or Defender). It’s genuinely good, it’s free, and it’s already running. Your main job is to not pile extra “cleaner” and “speed booster” programs on top — most of those cause more trouble than they prevent, like hiring three overlapping security guards who spend all day arguing.
Macs, iPhones, and Android phones have strong protections built in too. The biggest thing you can do there is stick to the official app stores and keep those updates flowing (see Habit 2 — everything connects).
If you do pay for a security program, buy it directly from a well-known company, not from a pop-up that scared you into it. Real antivirus doesn’t scream at you from a webpage.
Habit 4: Set Up “Find My Device” Before You Need It
Every phone, tablet, and most laptops now have a built-in locator — Find My on Apple devices, Find My Device on Android and Windows. If your device gets lost or stolen, you can see it on a map, make it ring at full volume (couch cushions, I’m looking at you), lock it remotely, or erase it completely from afar.
But here’s the thing: it only works if you turn it on before the device disappears. It’s the spare key you hide before you lock yourself out, not after.
Take five minutes today. Go into your phone’s settings, search for “Find My,” and make sure it’s on. Then do the tablet and the laptop. A client of mine once had a laptop grow legs at an airport — and because that locator was on, the story ended with a remote erase and a deep breath instead of a full-blown identity crisis.
Four Habits. That’s the Whole List.
Screen lock. Automatic updates. Trust the built-in antivirus. Turn on the locator. None of it costs a dime, and together they cover the vast majority of what actually goes wrong.
If you’d like a patient walkthrough on your own devices — settings screens can be a maze, I know — book a session with me at indigosolutionsllc.com. We’ll lock the car together.