OREANDA-NEWS. Kaspersky Lab launches a new free Android application, Phound!, which enables consumers to secure their Android devices and the personal data stored on them. Phound! - derived from the words Phone and Hound – helps to find a lost device quickly and keep any valuable information stored on it protected.

According to the Kaspersky Lab Consumer Security Risk survey, over a one-year period one respondent in 20 on average – and as many as one in six for some countries – lost their smartphone or tablet as a result of carelessness or theft. At the same time, 38 percent of participants admitted that their devices contained confidential data that they would not want to fall into the wrong hands. Phound! was developed to help minimize the risk of valuable, personal information being lost along with the device itself.

The app offers consumers the ability to remotely control their devices and the data stored on them, via the My Kaspersky portal. If a device is lost or stolen, users can remotely block it to prevent unauthorized access and detect the current location of the devices with GPS, GSM or Wi-Fi networks. To make searching for the device easier, users can also take pictures with the phone’s front camera or have a message pop up on the device’s screen.

If the lost device is just out of sight nearby it can be found with the Alarm feature, which activates a noise signal that indicates the location of the device. The device continues to make a loud sound until the owner enters a secret code. If necessary, the owner can use Phound! to remotely delete all personal information stored on the device and the SD card, including contacts, messages, photos, notes as well as perform a hard reset of the device.

“For many consumers, mobile devices serve as storage for their most valuable and important data – contacts of friends and colleagues, personal messages, private photos and many other things. This means that today’s smartphones and tablets need the same security as a bank vault. However, unlike bank vaults, smartphones are small, portable and easily misplaced. That is why we created a solution for our users to prevent their mobile ‘vault’ from falling into the wrong hands,” said Alexey Chikov, Senior Product Manager, Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Phound! is now available in eight languages in the Google Play Store. This app complements the Kaspersky Lab portfolio of free and freemium mobile products for consumer, which includes Kaspersky Safe Browser for iOS and Windows Phone, Kaspersky QR Scanner, Kaspersky Threat Scan, Kaspersky Internet Security for Android and Kaspersky Password Manager for iOS and Android.