Hackers have gotten increasingly clever when it comes to accessing the information stored on smart phones. And hackers are accomplishing this even when consumers protect their phones with lock-screen passcodes. As a current story on the Lifehacker technology Web site says, passcodes have never been a completely foolproof way to secure your smart phone. Thankfully, there are actions you can take to better secure your phone. And there are services you can enlist to protect yourself if you’ve lost your smart phone or someone has snatched it.

Passcode attacks

According to the Lifehacker story, recent passcode exploits work differently based upon whether hackers were targeting the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phones. For the iPhone, the exploits permitted hackers to gain access to the Phone app, not the iPhone’s home screen. This meant that hackers could use other’s phones to make calls, see users’ contacts and access users’ photos, even though they didn’t gain total access to the phone. For the Galaxy, hackers succeeded only to flash phones’ home screens for about a second. This is a short period of time, but adequate to permit hackers to launch an app or start downloading one that could unlock your phone entirely.

Not foolproof

The Lifehacker story proves that passcodes are not a magic pill for stopping smart phone hackers. This shouldn’t be surprising. As the Lifehacker story says, passcodes have never been more robust than standard passwords in regards to protecting smart phones. Hackers have long been able to crack lock-screen passcodes. They’ve been capable to break into the hard drives of smart phones to gain access to the data and information stored there.

The protection you need

Lifehacker offers some suggestions for protecting your phone. First, make a passcode for your phone’s lock screen that is comprised of symbols, letters and numbers. These passcodes are far more difficult for thieves to crack. Next, encrypt your phone’s data. Lastly, subscribe to services like Find My iPhone from Apple or the third-party app Prey. These nifty apps allow you track your phone if it’s stolen or you’ve lost it. You can then remotely erase the data stored on it, protecting yourself from hackers.

Think you can’t use your tablet computer to share screens with your co-workers? Think again. There are several apps you can get today that allow you to share your reports, images, documents and videos with co-workers and friends. With one of these screen-sharing apps, you won’t even miss that heavier laptop. Whatever screen sharing it can do, your tablet is now able to do, too. But which screen-sharing apps for iOS should you download? Miguel Leiva-Gomez, a writer for the tech site smallbiz technology, recommends three that should handle all of your screen-sharing needs.

Join.me

Leiva-Gomez starts his review with join.me for good reason. To put it simply, it’s one of the best screen-sharing apps for iOS currently out there. You will, however, need to pay for the program’s “pro” version to use it. Once you pay out the monthly fee of just under $20, though, you’ll have the ability to share your screen with co-workers and friends with ease. The program also comes with such goodies as Internet calling, instant chat and file sharing.

Air Sketch

Air Sketch is a formidable challenger to join.me. This app is another that’s simple to operate, according to Leiva-Gomez. It will also change your tablet into a surprisingly effective whiteboard that comes with five different drawing tools. You’re able to use Air Sketch to display documents, images, videos and presentations in real time, creating a tasteful and simple collaborative workspace.

Conference Pad

The Conference Pad completes Leiva-Gomez’s screen-sharing all-stars, and with good reason. This is a no-frills screen-sharing app, but it’s also a solid one. The app is especially impressive when it comes to zoom. Users can zoom into any area of their documents or images without having to sacrifice an iota of image quality. And like the other screen-sharing apps that Leiva-Gomez highlights, it’s a simple one to understand and use, which means that tablet owners will be sharing their screens in no time.

Google Reader, the widely used RSS reader, is all but dead. Google declared that it would discontinue the service once July 1 rolls around. This has hit a number of the service’s biggest fans hard. The truth, though, is that there are other choices. Google made a decision to close the service because its user base was progressively falling. But the closure of Google Reader provides an valuable lesson to consumers: There’s no guarantee that your favorite, free cloud service won’t go away, as well.

The impermanence of the cloud

The cloud is a great service. It allows us to access programs without needing to store them on our computers. However the cloud also isn’t all that permanent. Writing for Slate, Farhad Manjoo says that the demise of Google Reader ought to provide a lesson to all computer users on the web: Nothing in the cloud is permanent. When Google introduced Reader in 2005, it marketed the service as one that would be around permanently. Obviously, it won’t be. And that’s a lesson that consumers need to always remember: Nothing in the cloud is certain.

The downside of the cloud

This can be regarded as a downside to the cloud. In the days when software came on discs and we downloaded it to our computers, there was more permanence. Sure, companies would close shop and manufacturers would discontinue software. But you still had access to software, even though the companies behind it terminated it. After all, it was saved on your computer and you still had the discs. This isn’t the situation with the cloud. When something is yanked from the cloud, it is gone.

A bleaker future for Google?

What does this mean, though, for Google? In a recent story, the Economist writes that canceling Google Reader may seem like a small decision. Google does have to make money, and it seems sensible that it wouldn’t devote resources to a service that is no longer growing. Nevertheless, the choice to kill Reader may make users distrustful the next time Google launches a new product and wants everyone to flock to it. Why, consumers might ask, should we? Since of course, there’s no guarantee that Google won’t kill that new product one day, too. This isn’t just an issue that Google faces; it’s one that every company that operates in the cloud might one day have to deal with.

Think your small business is safe from cyber criminals? Rethink it. Most small businesses across the country are remarkably vulnerable to hackers. It’s relatively simple for savvy cyber criminals to hack into your business’ Wi-Fi account, for instance. From there, it’s an easy process for cyber criminals to steal your company’s data and funds. Thankfully, Entrepreneur Magazine recently ran an article offering tips for small business owners who want to protect their companies from hackers. The good news? Thwarting cyber crimes sometimes requires the easiest of steps.

Encryption

Make certain the full-disk encryption tools on your company’s computers are switched on. When they are, these tools encrypt every file or program stored on your computers’ drives. This is important mainly because hackers would prefer to go after easy targets. Once they realize that your company’s key data are encrypted, they will often move on searching for easier targets. On Macintosh computers, the encryption tool is labeled FileVault. On Windows-based machines, the tool is known as BitLocker.

Lockdown

According to the Entrepreneur story, many cyber criminals first physically break into businesses to steal their computer equipment, especially laptops. After they have these devices, they can often hack into a business’ computer systems. That’s why it’s important for your employees to take advantage of their computers’ Kensington lock port, the small metal loop installed on most computers and laptops. Users can run cables through these loops to secure their laptop computers to their desks. This sounds strange, but many criminals will spot secured laptops and move on. They don’t want to spend any extra time during their break-ins.

Wi-Fi Vulnerability

Wi-Fi networks are often vulnerable to hackers. That’s why Entrepreneur Magazine suggests that businesses rely on wired networks instead. If your business absolutely needs a Wi-Fi network, make sure to protect it using a difficult password. Entrepreneur Magazine recommends a password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. Write down this password and hide it in a safe or other secure spot.

Only one key employee has access to all of your small business’ important online accounts: your cloud-based payroll software, Twitter account, Facebook account and bank account. That’s fine. But what happens if that employee should die suddenly? Do you know the passwords to your company’s online bank account? What about that cloud-based payroll service? And even if you did, are you legally be able to access the online accounts after this employee dies?

Too much power?

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted this issue on its Web site. It might not feel like a problem that your business will suffer. But if your business has online accounts to which only one person has access, you might be tempting fate. If that person dies, will you be able to access your online bank account in order to pay your vendors or cut a rent check to your landlord? How about your payroll software? Will you be able to cut checks to your employees, all of whom want to get paid on their regular payday? And then there’s Twitter and Facebook. If your business relies on these tools to talk with customers, you’ll need to know the passwords that give you access.

False sense of security?

The Wall Street Journal story defines the issue as a matter of trust. Simply put, small business owners put an excessive amount of trust in the cloud. They erroneously feel that information they put in the cloud will stay protected forever. This isn’t true, though. The cloud doesn’t offer absolute protection from hackers. Plus it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always be able to access your important business files, information and accounts. If you can’t access your online accounts because none of your surviving employees knows the passwords, having all of your important business matters stored online won’t be much help.

Solving the problem

Solving this problem, fortunately, isn’t difficult: You simply need to be sure that more than one employee knows the passwords for your online accounts. And you needs to be equally certain that your critical accounts are either registered to your company or more than one staff member. That way, should that key employee die, you’ll still be able to conduct business normally.