Device Safety Checklist
30 actions across phone, laptop, browser and accounts. Pick a device type, tick each off in 30 minutes. Your progress is saved to this browser.
Progress Over Time
Your score % across the last 4 weeks. Come back each week to keep it rising.
Share this checklist with your team or family
What this tool does
This is a 30-point hardening checklist for the things that actually get people compromised — your phone, your laptop, your browser and your accounts. You tick items off as you do them and your progress is saved so you can come back and keep going.
How to use it
- Pick the device type you're securing.
- Work down the list, ticking each item as you complete it — most take a minute or two.
- Come back periodically; the saved progress lets you keep your score rising over time.
Why the boring checklist matters
Most security incidents aren't clever hacks — they're mundane gaps: no screen lock, an OS three versions behind, an account still signed in on a device you no longer use, permissions handed to apps that never needed them. None of these feel urgent, so they get skipped. A checklist turns a vague intention to "be more secure" into a finite list of concrete actions you can actually finish.
The riskiest devices I dealt with in twenty years of IT support were always the ones nobody was tracking. People left companies and their old phones were still logged into company email and chat months later. A "wiped" laptop handed back at offboarding still had a browser full of saved sessions. And bring-your-own-device was the quiet nightmare — personal phones carrying corporate accounts that no IT checklist ever covered, because they weren't "our" devices. Almost none of it required an attacker; it just required someone to forget. A simple, repeatable checklist is unglamorous, but it's exactly the thing that catches the forgettable stuff before it becomes an incident.
— Hill, 20 years in IT supportYour progress is stored in this browser's local storage only. There's no account, and nothing about your checklist is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Is my progress saved?
Yes — it's kept in this browser's local storage, so it's there when you return on the same device and browser. Clearing your browser data will reset it.
Does my progress sync to my other devices?
No. It's stored locally on this device only, with no account and no sync. If you harden several devices, run the checklist separately on each.
Why these particular items?
They target the gaps behind most real-world compromises: weak or missing screen locks, outdated software, lingering signed-in sessions, over-broad app permissions, and accounts without two-factor authentication.
What about a personal phone I use for work (BYOD)?
Run the checklist on it too. Personal devices carrying work accounts are a common blind spot — the same basics (lock, updates, 2FA, removing old sessions) matter just as much there.