But I was most angry at myself for not setting up Find My iPhone. Had I taken a few minutes to set this up, I would have at least had a fighting chance to recover my iPad. So if you’ve got an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac make sure you enable Find My iPhone, which will help you locate your device on a map, play a sound, display a message, remotely lock your device, or even erase all the data on it.

In order to setup Find My iPhone, you’ll need to first setup iCloud on your device. This can be done by tapping the Settings icon on the Home screen, selecting iCloud, and entering your Apple ID. You can use the same one you use for iTunes or setup a new account. (detailed instructions here) Once iCloud is setup, make sure Find My iPhone is set to On.

Now, if your device is ever lost or stolen, you can download the free Find My iPhone app on another iOS device. Then login using the same Apple ID you used to setup iCloud. If your device is online, it will locate it on a map and allow you to play a sound on the device (useful if you’ve misplaced your phone or iPad). If you’re running iOS 6, you can enable Lost mode, which will allow you to enter a message that will be displayed on the device, a phone number where you can be reached, and a four digit passcode to remotely lock the device (if you already set a passcode on the device, it will be used). For even greater security, you can remotely erase all data on the device. If you get the device back, you restore your data from a backup (which conveniently can also be done through iCloud).

I have a new iPad now, and Find My iPhone was the first thing I setup. And if I’m ever craving Trader Ming’s Pot Stickers, I make sure to lock my bag in the trunk.

How was this accomplished? Well, Honan got the details from the hacker in exchange for promising not to press charges. Strong passwords are important but they are not enough; flaws in many customer service systems can allow hackers to reset your password and access your data. Ultimately, all they needed was Honan’s email address, a billing address (which they got from the Whois information for a domain registered under his name) and the last four digits of a credit card on file.

Turns out that all you needed to get into an iCloud account was a billing address and the last four digits of a credit card on file. The hackers called Amazon and told them they were Honan and wanted to add a credit card to the account. All you needed to do this is the name on the account, an associated email address, and the billing address. Amazon then allows you to input a new credit card number. After doing this, the hackers called back and told them that they lost access to the account. By providing the new credit card number and the billing address, they were able to add a new email address to the Amazon account. After this, they went to Amazon’s site and sent a password reset to the new email address, which allowed them to see all of the credit cards on the account — not the entire numbers, just the last four digits.

Pretty scary stuff. Apple and Amazon have quietly closed these security flaws, but you can be sure more holes will be discovered. Honan’s main recommendations are:

1. Don’t link together key services (i.e., your iCloud and Google accounts)

2. Don’t use the same email prefix across multiple accounts (i.e., mhonan@gmail.com, mhonan@me.com, mhonan@wired.com)

3. Backup your data — Honan lost photos covering the entire lifespan of his daughter, in addition to documents and emails that were stored in no other location.