Make your Mobile a Tough Target: Strengthening Your Mobile Device
Do you pay attention to how secure your mobile phone is? Most of us do not do this, which makes it very easy for a hacker to get in and target us. Here are some tips that you can use to protect your phone from becoming a target:
Always Set a Passcode
One of the best things you can do to strengthen your mobile device’s security is to make sure you have a passcode on it. All mobile phones have a passcode option, and some phones, like the iPhone, even allows you to remotely lock it if you believe the phone has been stolen.
Use Biometrics
You can make your device even safer by setting up some type of biometric access like a fingerprint or facial recognition.
Use “Find My”
If you have an iPhone and it gets stolen, you can use the Find My iPhone app. This app is already on your iPhone, and it’s totally free. It uses GPS to locate your iPhone as long as the GPS capabilities are enabled. If you have an Android, you can do a similar thing with Find My Device.
Check Up on Your Privacy Settings
It is also a good idea to take a peek at your privacy settings. Your data is very important, and there are constant threats. Thankfully, you can set up your privacy settings to make it difficult to get into. Depending on your phone, you can look at privacy settings, location settings, VPN settings, and encryption settings.
Is Phone Antivirus Software Necessary?
Many people think that you can make your phone a lot safer by using anti-virus software. When you put this on your computer, it certainly helps a lot. However, it doesn’t do much, or isn’t even available for an iPhone. If you have an Android, though, it’s best to load one up. You can find a ton of them on Google Play.
Don’t Jailbreak or Root Your Device
You should also not jailbreak your iPhone nor root your Android device. Many people do this because they get more freedom for customizing their device, and you can download apps that Apple hasn’t approved. However, this can open your device up to hackers, which could be a devastating thing.
Encrypt Your Backups
Finally, make sure that you are backing up and encrypting your backups. When you backup your device, the data just sits on your computer or in the cloud, and in some cases that might mean it can get hacked. So, make sure you encrypt the information that’s there, so even if the computer is hacked or your cloud based backup is compromised, the hacker can’t access this data.
Written by Robert Siciliano, CEO of Credit Parent, Head of Training & Security Awareness Expert at Protect Now, #1 Best Selling Amazon author, Media Personality & Architect of CSI Protection Certification.
