You smartphone contains significant amounts of personal data. Securing access to your mobile prevents people from looking through its contents, and also blocks remote piracy. Today, mobile data theft is a growing risk, so follow these recommendations, you will ?.
1. Install updates, you will
Updating your phone’s operating system and your apps is essential for correcting gaps in security. You’ll stay ahead of the pirates and spies who try to use these gaps to penetrate your treasured digital privacy.
2. Your mobile, you will sync
Save your data, contacts, photos, and everything else by syncing it with a computer. And not just every 3 years, but regularly.
3. Your mobile, you will lock
Your smartphone comes with a whole range of locking options, so don’t leave it wide open for anyone to come in! Make your password or passcode more complicated by using 6 numbers or 6 alphanumeric characters, choose fingerprint recognition, or iris recognition. Then your phone will be unbreachable, except by your identical twin!
4. The minimum, you will download
Carefully select the apps you download, and don’t download those that don’t come from official stores. Be wary of attachments in messages and know that public Wi-Fi connections are never secure.
5. A shield, you will install
Several security tools exist (like CM Security, Avast!, Mobile Security & Antivirus only on Android and Lookout Antivirus & Security also for iOS) that will shield your phone. An application that alerts you to harmful apps, spyware or even viruses, monitors your web navigation, and secures your sensitive data: that should help you sleep better, right?
6. Your data, you will encrypt
Encrypting your files makes then unreadable, so that even if your phone is stolen, your World Cup predictions will remain secret. Although data encryption is automatically installed on your iPhone, Androids may require you to set this option yourself in the security settings. If you’d like to encrypt the data saved in online storage servers, use Boxcryptor.
7. Your communications, you will encrypt
To stop the NSA or FSB from listening in to your conversations with uncle Alfred, encrypt your phone calls thanks to the Kryptos or Signal apps. Both work just as well on Android as on iOS, with mobile networks or on Wi-Fi. To stop third parties from intercepting your messages, secured messaging services like Telegram and Cyphr do wonders.
8. Encrypt your Internet connection using a VPN, you will
By installing a VPN (virtual private network) like CyberGhost for iPhone or Android, you can connect to the internet securely, whether you’re using your smartphone’s 3 or 4g connection or public WiFi.
9. All your savings, you will invest… (optional)
Invest in a truly secure smartphone? You don’t have to be FBI to do it, quite the opposite.
Although the Thales Theorem or the Bull Hoox m2 are designed for a very specific group of people (politicians, military, leaders of so-called sensitive industries), the Blackphone, CryptoPhones, and the Darkmatter Katim, are ultra-secure smartphones that encrypt calls and messages by default. To buy this kind of toy, you do need deep pockets though.
There are other tricks for making your smartphone more secure, like deactivating voice assistants on the lock screen, locking your applications, specifically securing your personal photos and videos, installing a password manager, and even de-activating Bluetooth and NFC modes. These are good methods to follow, but don’t get paranoid !
Leave your comments here :)