How to protect your smartphone from hackers and fraudsters

Hacking a smartphone is felt as if someone robbed your home - or maybe even worse. This is a real invasion of a personal life, a violation of a personal space, and may take some time to find out what happened. Your gadget does not just store files and data - the device reports to attackers, what information is the most important.

Smartphones are small devices that can be easily lost or steal, and they constantly send and receive signals online, which is always the goal for fraudsters. In order for your phone and its contents to be protected from prying eyes, it is necessary to develop a security strategy for valuable information. We have collected several tips on how to protect your smartphone from hackers and intruders.

Update OS and applications

The developers' company constantly update the software, and not only for cosmetic reasons. Many updates and error corrections contain security improvements, which helps protect the smartphone from hacking and invasion, and also reduce the vulnerability, complicating the life of hackers. Therefore, it is worth remembering: as soon as the notification appears about updating the operating system of your mobile phone or any application you use, set up immediately.

Avoid public Wi-Fi networks

To date, everyone should know about hazards Open Wi-Fi for any purpose, because a free publicly available wireless network in shopping centers, cafes, airports or any other public place - like honey for hackers. Try to use only a cellular connection when possible, and disconnect Wi-Fi on your mobile phone when you are in a public place. If this is not possible, consider using an application VPN - these are utilities that allows one or more network connections (logical network) over another network. But choose carefully - not all VPN is the same in quality. You should also consider disconnecting Bluetooth when you do not use the phone, unless the phone is connected to smart watches, which require compounds of this kind.

Turn on the locking of the smartphone

Always put four or six-digit password to enter the device. It may be not very comfortable, but so much calmer: if your smartphone suddenly falls out of his pocket on the street, then the first person who will pick it up, will not be able to check email, contacts, photos and information about bank cards. Try installing even longer password with numbers and letters. Do not love passwords? No worries. Fingerprint scanner and Face ID is a simple and fast alternative to password code. In addition, make sure that your personal information applications are also blocked by passwords.

Keep the phone number in the Secret

You probably do not show the desire to give a stationary phone number Any conversation. In the same way, do not let your mobile phone number automatically for any application that may request data. The more applications remember your number, the more the device is vulnerable to frauds with SMS and even to the invasion of secure accounts 2FA. Try adding the second line to your gadget. Google Voice is a great way to protect the phone number from intruders on the Internet, like applications, such as Sideline, Line2 and Hush, which facilitate the inclusion of the second line into a mobile phone.

Do not distribute too much information in social networks

Although you can safely use your The real name in social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, should not share personal information about themselves. Avoid transferring a native city, specific addresses, specific jobs, phone numbers, surnames and other data that hackers can use to track. Nowadays, Facebook allows you to hide a huge part of information using settings and privacy tools, including most photos, friends lists and more. So, optimize the profile to get rid of the information that can reveal you more than you would like. Moreover, use Facebook on your home computer if there is such an opportunity.

Unload data

Do not store personal information, important documents or files on your phone, as well as limit the number of photos with geolocation in the camera application. Get used to leave a smartphone relative to "untouched", unloading images and documents on a computer and removing confidential emails.

Use two-factor authentication

Another safety measure that most people cannot tolerate. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is so unloved because it requires additional confirmation, and it is really depressing when there is no phone at hand. But, like passwords, it serves as a certain goal, providing an additional level of protection in case someone possesses your password.

Use complex passwords

No one loves passwords. But when the time comes, I still think of it, it is necessary to take it seriously. Use only reliable passwords that will be difficult to hack. They must contain 16-20 characters with a combination of capital and ordinary letters and numbers, as well as characters. Hackers of the highest discharge can still crack the reliable passwords, but simplify the task using the birthday, the name of the pet or the same password for everything is really a terrible idea.

The network has many secure password generators, so you do not need to invent them for yourself. Change passwords every six months per year, or as soon as hear about hacking data of any program you use. Yes, and a few words about "secret matters": lie. Do not answer honestly on secret questions and change your answers for different sites / applications. You can use a password response for questions consisting of letters and numbers, for example, instead of the name of your first pet. Thanks to this hacker, it is harder to understand how to penetrate the phone, based on publicly available information about the user on the Internet.

Beware of spam and phishing

One of the easiest ways to penetrate the phone and get Access to your information - via email. Phishing is designed in such a way that users themselves transmit access to their accounts. Try not to switch on the links in promotional letters, open suspicious attachments or run application updates by email. Do not attempt to access financial accounts through random emails, instead, go directly to the Financial Institution website and log in with the correct user name and password.

Use the built-in defense of the device

they are not in vain called "smartphones" (t. e smart phone). If the device is lost or stolen, you can find it using tracking services, such as Find My iPhone and Android Find My Device, which can track the missing phone on the map and, in some cases, automatically erase all data from His. These services also allow you to make the phone to call, which helps to find the device. In addition, it is possible to configure the gadget to delete all the information after incorrect password entry attempt.

Use an anti-virus application

Hackers prefer malicious software for stealing passwords and account information. But you can fight this using an anti-virus application for a smartphone - some of them are branches of popular PC programs, such as Avast, McAfee and Panda. They offer enhanced security due to the fact that downloadable applications, PDF files, images and other files are not infected with malware prior to their opening.

Manage application permissions

Check applications on your phone to determine whether They are more privileges than need. You can enable / disable access to the camera, microphone, contacts or location. Make sure that the applications are allowed, and turn off unnecessary. In the case of the iPhone, go to "Settings"> "Privacy", where you will see a list of all applications and the permissions provided to them. As for Android, it all depends on the device. For example, on Google Pixel, you will find the desired section in "Settings"> "Applications and Notifications"> "Advanced"> "Application Permissions", and Samsung Galaxy - in the section "Settings"> Applications> "Application Permissions" (three vertical points in the upper right corner).

data backup

always need to be prepared for the worst, and create a backup of the device to protect important documents and images in case the phone Lyan or stolen. Thus, despite the fact that the smartphone is lost, you can still get access to precious photos or files. If the backup of your iPhone is executed, you can program it on automatic cleaning after 10 consecutive unsuccessful password input attempts.

Watch where applications are set

Do not upload old applications to the phone. Although the application of applications for iPhone is limited to Apple App Store, which checks all the programs sold on the platform, the Android software is easy to download from the Internet, which means a simple setting from a source other than Google Play Store. However, you must dig in the settings and resolve this option. The best way to avoid malware on Android is to adhere to programs available on Google Play Store, which are checked by Google. Never download applications using text messages, as this is a notorious method that hackers are used to introduce malicious programs straight to the phone.

Stay away from public charger

Charge the phone only from reliable USB ports, such as a computer and a car. An attackers can crack publicly available USB ports for charging, for example, those that you meet in a cafe or airport to steal personal information. Take a adapter with you along with a USB cable if you are traveling. Hackers can not access your phone data via a USB adapter.

Do not jailbreak

Despite the fact that the jailbreak allows iPhone owners to access To applications and software, inaccessible in the Apple App Store, it also subjected the phone viruses and malware. If the device is ultimately hacked, it annuls the warranty, and the Apple service center will probably not help you.

Outcome

If you take positive measures to protect your smartphone from hackers, you can be sure that you have done everything possible to protect important information.. This significantly reduces the likelihood that attackers will be able to steal the data, to penetrate their personal life, steal money, control the phone and much more.

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