Luckily I haven’t lost my iPhone or iPad yet, but rather than wait for the inevitable I recently decided to do something about this big security hole. In addition to using these devices for personal purposes, I also use them for business reasons which means it could be a real problem if someone else were to get unauthorized access. Thanks to Apple’s Mobile Me product, protecting yourself from this potential disaster is free and painless to set up. By following these simple instructions (iPhone and iPad) I was up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Once you get the system going, you’ll be safe if you ever leave the device behind in a coffee shop, airport or anywhere else you hang out. You can look at a map to see exactly where it’s located. You can send the phone an alert message to try and recover it. And if you’re worried about sensitive data, you can remote wipe and/or lock the device. If you have an iPhone or iPad don’t procrastinate – set this up now!

Of course it’s not only consumers that need mobile device management. Businesses require even greater protections. Historically, enterprises forced specific devices on their employees (see the Palm Treo), but now employees are demanding the freedom to choose their own device. This naturally makes IT and compliance departments very nervous. Thanks to products like Zenprise (full disclosure: this is a Shasta portfolio company), both the employee and the IT departments can now be content. With its mobile device management platform, employees get to choose their preferred device, and the IT department sleeps easy at night knowing the company’s data is secure.

In our increasingly mobile world, this is something that every consumer and business should be thinking about.