Android Security tips: Armour-plate your smartphone

6. Insure and go?
Phones are expensive to replace, particularly if yours is lost, stolen or simply broken shortly after you received it as part of a subscription to a mobile service provider. To avoid having to spend the last 18 months of your contract using a feature phone, it’s important to make sure that you mention your phone on any relevant insurance policies, including home and travel insurance.

These will often provide you with sufficient cover even if you don’t take out specialist phone insurance, although it’s commonly advised to only make major claims on your home insurance, as the frequency of claims have greater impact on your premiums than the value of the item which has to be replaced. Make sure your excess is also low enough to justify any claim you make – with some as high as £250, you may be better off just buying a second hand smartphone to see you through until your contract renewal.

7. Exercise common sense
Ultimately, it’s always best to avoid losing your phone or getting a virus in the first place. You can improve your odds by not waving your £500 smartphone around in dodgy pubs when you’re drunk, avoiding third-party app markets and reading what permissions you’re granting to each app as you install it. However, installing at least a few rudimentary tracking and protection tools in advance is also sensible and can save you a lot of grief in the long run.