Theory

Once you complete the homework for Day 4 and Day 6, an attacker will have a tough time getting into your device. But given enough time, skill, and patience, anything is possible. Someone with physical access to your device might still be able to break in.

If someone hacks your phone or computer, you’re not the only one at risk. Anyone:

• who sends you messages
• who appears in photos stored locally or online
• who could be tricked by someone impersonating you

…is also a victim. Risking your own security is one thing, but once family, friends, and coworkers are involved it’s often better to be safe than sorry.

If you’ve lost a device and have little hope of getting it back, it may be time to burn it down. Many devices allow you to erase the hard drive’s contents wirelessly. This is usually an opt-in feature that requires special settings^[1].

It’s good to have the option, in case you find yourself needing it^[2].

Homework

Set up your device so that you can wipe its data over the Internet—if it ever comes to that. Below is a list of official guides on how to configure your device:

• Android
• iOS & OS X
• Windows
• Windows Phone

---

1. You can often enable remote location tracking from the same settings menu. We’re generally against tracking, but you may want to make the trade-off here; devices are expensive. Your location is likely tracked regardless. ↩︎

2. I sincerely hope that you never need to exercise this option. ↩︎