Smartphone users rely on their devices for just about everything: business, shopping, communication, entertainment, and the list goes on.
According to Pew Research Center, 81% of Americans have a smartphone, and reportedly the average user checks theirs more than 50 times a day.
But despite our reliance on our phones, many of us are not using them safely.
To avoid having personal information and password stolen, we put together 5 safety precautions to consider to make your mobile device more secure.
Lock Home Screen
Its obvious that this is the first recommendation. Sensitive information are easily accessible on your phone, so this is imperative to help protect you from any eyes skimming through your phone. “Locking your screen when you’re not directly using it prevents anyone within reach from accessing its contents,” Stacy Caprio, founder of Accelerated Growth Marketing, told Business Insider Personell. “Additionally, consider going into your settings and increasing your password length to the maximum allowed to make your phone harder to hack into if someone does get access and tries to break in.”
Avoid Charging Your Phone in Public Ports
Check “juice jacking” Article.
This one may hurt a little to discover, but charging your phone in public charging stations — the kind found in airports, transit stations, planes, conference and shopping centers — can make you susceptible to a security breach.
That’s because connecting to a public port does more than charge your phone — it also transmits data. If an outlet is compromised, then a hacker could access your emails, texts, photos, and contacts. This technique of hacking phones is known as “juice jacking,” according to Krebs on Security, a news outlet on cybercrime and computer security.
Use: Two Factor Authentication
Extra steps can seem tedious, but this is not the case for two-factor authentication. This security step double-checks your identity is legitimate before letting you use a particular account, like your email.
A common form of two-factor authentication is one that generates a time-sensitive code that’s sent to your phone through text message. The code is good for one-time use, and once you enter it, you can access your account.
It’s a little extra work for you, but it makes it much harder for a bad actor to breach your account.
Update Your Phone’s Software Regularly.
You may avoid accepting those notifications for phone updates like the plague, but doing so can reduce the chances of your phone being hacked.
“Even though it can be an annoyance or a headache at times, it’s for your own good,” Liz Hamilton, a director at Mobile Klinik, told Business Insider. “The longer you go without updating your phone and software, the longer your data is at risk for any malware malfunction.”
Hotspots Make Your Life Easier
giving you Wi-Fi at your fingertips wherever you go. But they can also make your life a headache if they are not protected.
That’s because hotspots could allow strangers to access data and files on your phone, tablet, and laptop without your knowledge. Protect against this by selecting a strong encryption, or the process of encoding a message, for your hotspot. Sometimes the default encryption might be outdated or not the most secure.
To avoid this, select the most secure hotspot encryption for hotspots, Wireless Protected Access 2, or WPA2. Originating in 2006, WPA2 has the strongest data encryption option, according to LifeWire. While internet users within range might be able to see the traffic on a WPA2 network, it will be protected with the latest encryption key.
These are 5 tips you don’t necessarily hear too often regarding the security of your smartphone. However, these are vital practices to implement or check in on a daily basis. As the technology continues to grow and improve, so does the knowledge and the capability of these hackers and cyber criminals. If we don’t grow our knowledge and competency regarding security defenses of our smartphones, we increase the chance for us to be victims of any unfortunate breaches or cybercrime.
Visit Biztek Solutions for more information about how companies like us implement these practices for your business.
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