The mobile phone is celebrating over ten years as it was introduced to the world, and most of us are still surprised about the capabilities of this technology. All of us wonder how our lives would be without mobile phones. With other supporting inventions today, smartphones are playing similar fields with computers. No, you can carry the story of your life in hands, literally! This is the reason why it is scary and disheartening to know that if your mobile phone gets into the wrong hands you could lose a lot of things. Here are some of the important steps to protect your phone and info.
The Common Risks
Our mobile phones are exposed to all types of risks. Here are a few of these problems:
Losing your mobile phone fin robbery- Leaving your mobile phone unattended, even for a few seconds can cost you. In addition to the initial price of replacing your device, there is a good chance of exposing your private information. All it takes a few hours for criminals to remove the store passwords, access your phone book, pictures, and valuable information related to your bank account. Then they may continue to blackmail you or harass your contacts.
Social Scams- It is one of the most famous techniques for fraudsters. They send text messages that need action to be taken or email with links that are tainted. Sometimes, they even have such boldness to call you with untrue stories to extract personal information from you and deceive you with that.
Oversharing- Treat your mobile phone in the same manner as you treat your laptop when it comes to sharing. Or better yet, be cautious when you give your phone to your friends even for a few seconds. Why this is so? As your location can be tracked through your mobile phone and could permit the instant distribution of information.
Wireless network- Your mobile phone and personal info are vulnerable to hacking when you connect to an unsafe and public network. Using public WIFI is unsafe and you must avoid this as much as you can.
Few Steps to Protect your Phone and Info
Your smartphone can be worth more than your wallet in most of the cases as it might consist of very sensitive info that could be detrimental to financial and personal security and safety if it is too much exposed. Sometimes, we feel that we are not doing enough to safeguard our devices outside and this feeling must be taken seriously, and we should take a few steps to protect our phones. Here are a few tips to safeguard your phone and avoid sensitive data, messages, information from getting in the wrong hands.
Update your phone- One of the important steps to protect your phone and info is to always update your phone. If you are among those who ignore updates, it is high time to stop doing this. These updates not only add interesting functionality to your phone but also safeguard your phone. In addition, most of these updates are the developer’s answer to the issues that affect the phone in its current condition, so go ahead and do the needful.
Install the Security Software- Though some security applications might have been added to your phone by your phone developer, much of your info is exposed. You can take an extra step to safeguard your phone by installing security software like VPN (Virtual Private Network). A good VPN will safeguard your smartphone by encrypting data and info you send and receive on your phone and prevent the increasing incidence of hacking and computer malware. In addition, it would also keep eavesdroppers and hackers away. Most of this security software, like for example, VPN, automatically saves the data and assists the authorities in order to track your mobile phone if it is robbed.
Install SIM lock- With securing your phone, ensure that the SIM card is locked if it is vital to you. SIM lock is mainly important if you are linked to a contract without any restrictions.
Unlock with an application- One important thing that may be specifically important in safeguarding images and messages is to add other layers of security. If you have access to the code that by chance gets into the wrong hands, your data will be at risk.
Use a PIN/keylock code- Using a keylock or PIN code is one of the significant steps to protect your phone and info. Research has shown that 54% of smartphone users in the US do not fix password security on their mobile- either when switched on or moved from standby. The reasons are obvious. If your phone is lost, or you leave it unattended, anyone who finds it will not be able to access it. This could help in preventing your data from being stolen, unwanted calls being made, and could also result in considerable cost. There are several ways to use a PIN code. Some of the new phones come with a “pattern lock”, a personalized pattern or shape that the user must draw on the screen to access. This is often faster and hassle-free than using a password. Alternatively, a PIN code provides a numeric alternative to a standard password and can save your time too. Remember, a password that can be guessed easily is less safe. On the other hand, a screen lock is useful, but it will not stop someone from removing the SIM card and put it in another phone. To avoid this from happening, you must set up a SIM card lock in the style of a PIN number that must be entered when a phone is switched on for connecting to a network. With both these security measures, you can be sure that if your phone is stolen, it will of little use to the thief.
Safeguard sensitive data- While PIN entry and password locks are generally the only things you need to safeguard mobile phones some years ago, these days you effectively carry a miniature computer with its own removable storage. Preventing someone from being able to switch on a phone is no longer enough, as it is easy to recover data by just plugging it into your computer or removing the micro SD card. There are many ways to protect the sensitive data stored in the internal storage. Most of the smartphone platforms provide software that can encrypt folders or files on a device with industry-standard protection, which means one should enter a code before copying or viewing a file. This also goes for info like login details, password, account numbers, and other important information that may be saved for access to businesses or online banking. Ensuring that this kind of information is not accessible is important, and it would be great to install such protection and utilize it as a common practice. Most of this software is free to download and for use. They can work effectively on your phone to offer automated and seamless protection, so there is the little hassle involved in it to make it run.
Try to avoid public Wi-Fi-This is one of the important things to protect your phone and info. To keep your phone and the information in it safe, you must avoid using free public Wi-Fi that you get in cafes, shopping malls, airports, and many other public places. Try to use your private cell connection whenever possible and switch off Wi-Fi on your cell phone when you are in a public area. You can even try to use a VPN app, an app that channels network communication through an encrypted connection.
These are some of the useful steps to protect your phone and info. Following these steps will ensure the complete safety of your phone.