Having your precious smartphone swiped is one thing, but giving the thief free access to your apps and data can potentially be even worse. There's a lot you can do before you lose the phone in the first place, though, that will make it much harder for thecriminals to do anything other than wipe it and sell it on.

1. Lock the screen

 When Apple introduced the fingerprint scanner to the iPhone, company execs estimated that around half of us didn't bother locking our phones. Whether it's a swipe gesture or PIN code, make sure there's some kind of protection between a thief and your home screen. Workarounds do exist for lock screen security, but it buys you some valuable time.

If you don't want to have the hassle of tapping out a code every time you want to check Instagram, at least activate a lock screen method when you leave the house or are heading off on a journey. Tasker is one of the apps you can use on Android to automatically set up lock screen security based on your location.

 For maximum protection, dial the lock screen delay right down. On Android, it's the Automatically lock option on the Security menu in Settings (note that this won't appear until you've activated some kind of security for the lock screen). On iOS, tap Require Passcode on the Passcode page of Settings to set the delay. On both OSes, the security lock delay is set separately to the delay that switches the screen off.

2. Activate remote features

 There's no excuse for not setting up a remote tracking and wiping features on your handset, as the software makers have made the whole process very simple. Find My iPhone has been around since iOS 3.0 and can be activated from within the iCloud options page in Settings. You can then log into iCloud on the Web and see where your device is: Lost Mode lets you lock the device from afar, while the Erase iPhone option does exactly as advertised.

 It's a pretty identical story on Android, where you can track all of the devices linked to your Google account from one Web interface. It's called Android Device Manager and again you have the option to either lock or erase your smartphone as well as locate it on a map. On your handset, you need to launch the Google Settings app then tap Android Device Manager to find the options.

 Using a Windows Phone or BlackBerry is no excuse for not getting these precautions in place. BlackBerry handsets use a feature called BlackBerry Protect which you can find on the System Settings menu, while Windows Phone owners can use Find My Phone, which is automatically set up when you log into your handset using a Microsoft account.