EXPOSED

5 Simple Steps for Smartphone Security

September 17th, 2018

Security for mobile devices is often not taken as seriously as for PCs. Smartphones are taken everywhere, regularly connect to public wifi and carry a large amount of personal data such as photos, addresses, emails, log in details etc. They face threats such as hackers, theft and malware such as ad libraries are growing problem in app stores. Here are a few simple steps for keeping your smartphone secure.

    Only download trusted and necessary apps: There’s an app for everything but many particularly in phone personalization and games category are ad libraries. These are apps that have been monetised by adding targeted ads. Personal data can be abused and even leaked by these apps. There are also other threats from downloading unfamiliar apps such as malware.

    Disable or limit use of location tracking: It is useful but should be used sparingly and users should be particularly cautious about allowing apps to use your phones location tracking. Location tracking would allow hackers to create a picture of your day to day routine, making you vulnerable to identity theft or other dangers.

    Don’t trust free public Wifi: we have mentioned it before, a public wifi network is an easy target for hackers. Often poorly protected and accessed by vulnerable devices it can put a lot of users at risks. Don’t connect to wifi without being able to verify the source. While connected use encryption and avoid if possible accessing sensitive data such as bank accounts or a work database.

    Keep cloud storage secure: Dropbox, Evernote and other apps are very useful for sharing data. But leaving them constantly running on your smartphone can put all that data at risk. A stolen phone is frustrating but if the criminals get access to vulnerable data that you have stored in the cloud, they could end up stealing a lot more that just your smartphone.

    Encrypt your browser traffic Encryption adds another layer of security, it protects you while using public wifi, making it difficult for hackers to target you. Smartphone encryption is becoming easier and can even offer benefits such as data compression. Amongst employers operating a bring your own device policy at work, only 13% required hardware encryption and 23% required software encryption. That’s despite encryption being one of the most effective ways of protecting user data

    Protect your smartphone