​Phone & Tablet Security

Encryption on Phones and Tablets

Depending on the content on your smartphone or tablet, you may wish to look into securing the data with device encryption.  Without device encryption, it is much easier for a third party to gain access to the data on the device – even if a remote wipe command has been issued to the device.

For instance, in a situation where the device has been stolen, the attacker could immediately power off the device and dismantle it to gain access to the storage.  Without device encryption, the storage location would be fully accessible. 

Therefore, in order to maintain a high level of security, encryption of the storage itself is required.  The vast majority of smartphones support device encryption, with some having it as standard, out of the box.

IOS Devices

Since iOS 8, enabling encryption on Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices is relatively simple, and is done by default once you set a passcode or enable Touch ID on the device.  Once this is done, full device encryption is turned on automatically without you having to do anything.

Android devices

Android devices have been able to be encrypted since version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.  Since version 6.0 Marshmallow, full disk encryption is mandatory on most devices that were built with the version, but not on devices that upgraded to that version. 

On Android devices there is an option to enable encryption, usually found under the Security setting.  However, as most Android devices have slightly differing interfaces, please refer to the specific manufacturer guidance for your device.