Melbourne, 14 March 2013. AVG Technologies AU has provided some helpful tips for keeping consumers and their mobile devices safe on St. Patrick’s Day.
St Patrick’s Day, the 17th of March, is a day of cultural and religious celebration for the “Feast of St Patrick” that is often commemorated with parades, pub parties, city festivities and large crowds. As with all major celebrations, the day’s reputation is to encourage people to relax, enjoy the company of friends and family and toast life with a glass of green beer or two. However, as with all major celebrations, crowded gatherings have the tendency to attract pickpockets and thieves who can easily steal consumers’ personal devices in the blink of an eye.
“In this mobile age, our smart devices hold an immense amount of personal data, such as financial details, emails and intimate photos, which can easily be left behind or stolen during celebratory holidays,” Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG, said. “AVG wants to encourage a fun-filled day with peace of mind and no bad luck, so we aim to protect our users wherever they go with the power to track, lock and erase personal information on their smart devices before they are accessed by unwanted perpetrators.”
To help keep the luck of the Irish with the good guys, AVG has created a list of tips to help keep consumers and their mobile devices safe during their shamrock celebrations:
Be aware of your surroundings and report suspicious behaviour
- Don’t let go of personal property: keep phones in pockets or bags, and keep bags attached to you
- Leave things at home: do you really need to carry all the normal credit/debit cards?
- If you need to use your phone, step aside or off the street and into a shop so you are less visible
- Protect your device with a PIN
- Install software such as AVG AntiVirus Free for Android™ that allows you to lock, locate and wipe your device
- Keep details of how to block credit cards and phones somewhere simple to access
- If you are unfortunate enough to be a victim, ensure you lock your data and stop all of your credit cards immediately. Make the benefit to the bad guys smaller by acting faster.
About AVG — www.avg.com.au
AVG Technologies’ mission is to simplify, optimise and secure the Internet experience, providing peace of mind to a connected world. AVG’s powerful yet easy-to-use software and online services put users in control of their Internet experience. By choosing AVG’s software and services, users become part of a trusted global community that benefits from inherent network effects, mutual protection and support. AVG has grown its user base to 146 million active users as of 30 December 2012 and offers a product portfolio that targets the consumer and small business markets and includes Internet security, PC performance optimisation, online backup, mobile security and identity protection.