Your typical smartphones hold a tremendous amount of personal and professional data, including contacts, photos, text messages and online activity.
In many cases, the typical smartphone holds more information than your office desktop computer or laptop.
Therefore, it’s critical to prevent your personal and professional information from falling into the wrong hands. Follow these simple tips to keep your smartphone and the information on it secure:
Clean Up Your Apps
Make a habit of deleting apps that you no longer use. Outdated versions could be running in the background, exposing you without you even realizing it.
Update Your Operating System
Always install software updates as soon as they become available: It goes without saying that updating your software can bring annoying changes to the interface that you’re used to. However, these updates typically include fixes for security issues found in the old operating system. The longer you wait, the longer you are exposed.
Lock It Up
To avoid a security risk, make sure that your auto-lock function activates after a short period of inactivity. The longer you make your auto lock timeout, the easier you making your phone accessible if you lose it or misplace it in a public setting.
Report stolen phones
If your phone is stolen, report it to your local law enforcement authorities and then register the stolen phone with your wireless provider.
This provides notice to all the major wireless service providers that the phone has been stolen and will allow for remote “bricking” of the phone so it cannot be activated on any wireless network without your permission.
Beware open Wi-Fi
We all know there’s a risk involved in using an open wireless network. But you may not realize how severe it is. Anyone in the vicinity can snoop on what you’re doing online.
If you’re at all doubtful about a wireless network, don’t connect – stick with your phone’s mobile internet connection. Free public Wi-Fi is great but tapping into a network that's not secure makes it easy for hackers to intercept and capture your info. While on public Wi-Fi, avoid entering any passwords or personal data, like a credit card number.
If you need to make a purchase, switch to your cellphone’s data plan connection.
Download apps only from trusted stores
Many apps from untrusted sources contain malware that, once installed, can steal information, install viruses and cause harm to your phone’s contents. Therefore, only download apps from trusted, reputable sources.
Always stick with official stores like App Store or Google Play. Before downloading an app, do your own research to ensure the app is legit. Read comments from previous users before you download an app to confirm it’s legitimate.
Download a security app
Mobile security apps are applications designed for smartphone to protect and secure the device and its data from unauthorized access in the case of theft or accidental loss.
Additional security features typically offered by mobile security apps include scanning for malware and spyware viruses; VPN connectivity for protecting data in transit; and scanning websites for potential phishing schemes.
These are just a few of the common sense measures you can take to protect your smartphone and ensure you don’t become part of a rising proportion of users who are being targeted by malicious parties.
With new attacks making headlines every day, I encourage you to contact Iron Point today for a no-obligation coaching call for more ways you can secure your data.