DOs & DON’Ts – How to Secure Your Mobile Phone

Modern mobile phones are much more than ordinary devices for making calls and texting. They have become almost real computers that allow you to do shopping or to pay some bills or to exchange the files. And these very function made smartphones and tablets a good target for malicious attacks.

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Today I’m going to give you several pieces of advice about how not to get hacked. Follow these simple steps and you will stay secure.

Do’s

1. Keep your applications and system regularly updated. The mobile developers look for some “holes” in the codes that can be used by the hackers fix them as soon as possible leaving less and less possibilities to steal you info.

2. Use a password on the phone and a PIN code on the SIM card. And change them regularly.

3. Setup your gadget to lock automatically and to require a password to unlock.

4. Encrypt the personal data.Some very prominent steps have been made in this direction by the developers of mobile operation systems, but still there is some space for improving. You can do it loading special apps.

5. Install a security app. Such apps help to protect your data from the incoming attacks and threads, just like antivirus software does it for your PC. Also such application allows locating your phone if it is stolen.

6. Be careful with what you click and what you download. Thousands of malware programs try to steal your credit card information while you are browsing the Internet. Visit only trusty resources and sites.

7. Check app’s data access. After installing any app make sure that the app doesn’t use or even doesn’t have an access to your personal information. Or at least that you have granted the access to it by yourself.

8. Turn Bluetooth and GPS off when you aren’t using it. These ways of transmitting the information aren’t secure ones, so try to limit the use of it. And change the phone settings so that you phone should ask a permission to join a new wireless network.

9. Check the phone bill for some unusual data charges and payments. Contact the service provider immediately if you havefound any calls or data usage that you didn’t make.

10. Set up your phone in a way it backs up the data to a separate memory card.

11. Delete all your personalinfo if you are going to sell or recycle the phone.

Don’ts

1. Don’t do shopping or banking when you are on a public networkas the connection might not be secure.

2. Don’t load apps from untrusted resources. Do itmainly from official app markets of Google, Apple, and Blackberry. There are lots of third-party sites that offer infected apps to install.

3. Don’t click on any suspicious or unexpected links. Even when they seem to be from your friends as their accounts might be jailbroken too.

4. Don’t stay log in of site when you don’t use them and do clear cookies regularly.

5. Don’t save any passwords on you mobile phone.

Signs of malicious infection of your phone

• A sudden increase in your phone bill without clear reason for it;
• Your user interface has been changed unexpectedly;
• Our find any emails or messages in the sent folder that you don’t know about.

Security of mobile systems is a rather new concept. Most of people think that smartphones are like smart toys even without thinking how much personal data are kept there. So, don’t be one them!