5 best apps to secure your tablet or smartphone

You know by now that hackers are after your personal and financial information. On your computer, there are plenty of programs that help keep your info safe. 

This makes them very tempting targets for hackers and thieves. So, what can you do to protect your gadgets?But hackers aren’t stopping there; their new target fits in your hand. People use their iPhones, iPads, Androids and Windows smartphones and tablets for everything from social networking to banking.

I’ve done the research and put together a list of  the top five apps to keep your gadgets safe and secure. Be sure to look at them all, because they  work in different ways to keep your smartphones and tablets secure. Remember, as you look at this list, a phone or a tablet is just a mini-computer.

Lookout - Lookout is a free anti-virus and anti-spyware app for mobile devices. It also protects your phone in the event it is lost or stolen.

You’ll be able to back up your contact data or find your phone using GPS location. This app lets you remotely wipe your phone and back up photos and call history.

avast! SecureLine VPN - The same company that makes one of the best free anti-virus suites for PCs provides protection for Android phones: avast! SecureLine VPN. It can prevent many types of viruses and intrusions at no cost to you.

avast! SecureLine VPN offers privacy reports, SMS and call filtering, anti-spyware and even a firewall. avast! also offers theft protection by disguising itself, establishing a list of trusted SIM cards and allowing remote settings changes.

Find My iPhone - Your iPhone isn’t just vulnerable to cyberattacks. Because of its size and value, it’s a vulnerable target for physical theft.

If your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch is lost or stolen, you can track its location using Find My iPhone. The app can also remotely lock or wipe your phone and play a sound at full volume for two minutes.

Android Device Manager - Whether your phone has wandered off by itself or it had help from a shady character, you shouldn’t be worried about getting it back. Not if you’ve taken the precaution of installing security software.

Android Device Manager tracks down your gadget with GPS so you can go find it. If your gadget is just lost, you can cause it to ring at full volume or display a message on the lock screen. You can even lock your Android remotely.

LastPass - The first, best defense against hackers is a strong password. The strongest ones use unique and random numbers, letters and characters. Longer passwords are always better, and you shouldn’t use the same password for multiple accounts.

Unfortunately, that makes it very difficult to remember each password, let alone which is which. LastPass can help. It stores all your passwords across your devices, so you only have to remember one: your LastPass password.