As we are living in well developed world of technology, we see how from all the sides the new innovations are being subjected to our lives eventually. Small things make big differences. We all know out of all the smart devices that were introduced, smart phones are one factor that took a lead in the world market and is number one among the users.
So, this way when a smart phone has turned out to fulfill so many needs of ours to make life easier, there is something else that we should start considering about too. It is not always the good ones that develop but initially along with it, we will have to see a lot of negativity too. So like that, we know how some hackers and intruders find ways to enter into your phones and grab personal details of yours. Which is not going to be something small? Your personal, official or any valuable data can be taken by them and even before you realize they are been stolen or lost, the hackers would use it against you. So we should always find ways to protect our phones from hackers or intruders. And that’s why today I am going to give you some tips and methods on how to safeguard your phones from such hacks.
Avoiding Public WiFi Networks
We would always do to free WiFi without considering any others factors. When we find any free WiFi connections in malls, shopping centers, public areas or any such place, we should also realize that the WiFi is free not only for you but for the hackers too. They will find ways to make you get into your trap using the simplest way through a free WiFi connection. So the next time you find any free connection make sure you think before you connect.
Use Two-Factor Authentication
This is a method which will work as another wall towards the security of your phone and apps. So in that case you can eventually add the two factor authentication and thereby when you try to enter in to the particular app then you will get a onetime code, and only with that you can log in to any of your accounts. So this way, you will be saved if anyone tries to enter into your personal accounts and thereby try hacking.
Always Go With Strong Passwords
We all hate the fact that we have to enter a long password to open up our phones or accounts. But that’s the best thing you can actually to do avoid from a hacker trying to easily crack your password and enter in. Your password should be strong and have numerals, upper case or lower case letters or symbols, which will make it very difficult to find out. And if possible change your password twice a year. So this way you can protect your phone from any illegal activists entering in.
Do Not Open Spam Or Phishing Emails
The easiest way the hackers have found is by entering into your phones using the emails, where they send you spam or phishing emails, which will have links in them for your click, and when you do so, your phone will fall a prey to the hackers. So avoid opening or clicking on any links in any promotional, advertising or any emails with some unknown attachments or even running updates that are prompted through emails.
Use Anti-virus Protection
The most important thing that you should do to protect your phone from hackers is to use an Anti-virus app. These apps will detect virus or any malware and alert you and at the same time it will protect the phone from any miscellaneous threats entering. Even in case your phone already has any virus in them, installing an Anti-virus app can help you clear them out. So get an Anti-virus and make it a shield of protection to your phone.
Check What You Are Installing To Your Phone
We all might have experienced where when we click the download button, the particular app before installing would give you a big page contained of several factors asking for you to grant permission. Those contents may include asking permission to get the ability to read all your files, to access your camera, to browse your gallery or even to listen over your microphone. Most of the time these options that we grant permission to can be illegitimate, it can open up space to different other negative aspects. There are so many malicious apps found in the Google playstore that exists for longer time before they are found inappropriate and get removed.
So you should be very careful of what you are installing and find out whether it is a genuine app. And also before providing permanent to everything that the app ask you for, read the terms and conditions. Do not install anything from websites that aren’t familiar.
Check For What Is Already There In Your Phone
Sometimes, an app could have been safe and good when you installed it, but then with time and many updates it could have got menacing. So if you find it a habit to check on your installed apps and look at what permission you have granted it for and what other features in your phone it is using.
If you are using an iOS smartphone then there you will find a lot of relevant information under the ‘Settings’ in ‘Privacy’ section.
But in Android it is not easy to find out information about an app that is installed in your phone. But to find it out you can use some of the security apps that is available in the Google playstore. It will help you out with the overview. Such apps will also give you alert when you try to install apps that are malicious and it would warn you if a phishing attack is trying to trick you enter your password in un-trusted websites or apps.
Do Not Leave Online Services Unlocked
We are all used to save our password to auto login the next time, because it is very convenient. This makes a hacker open your browser and easily get access to all your accounts that are left unlocked. So it is highly recommended not to use auto login features. And also make sure you don’t use the same password to more than one app, because if an intruder finds a way to login to a specific account he literally gets the ability to access all the other accounts which has the same password.
Thereby to safeguard confidential data and accounts can also use a Password Manager app which requires you to re-enter master passwords.
Prevention Tips: If Someone Steals Your Phone To Hack Data
How To Make It Hard To Get Access: If in case a thief or some hackers stole your phone, then it would be easy for them to get in and steal all your important data. There are some preventive measures that can be taken in advance so you have not to worry about all the data that can be leaked out.
Make sure your lock your phones after every use. This should be done both in Android and iOS by setting up a pass-code of at least 6 digits. Some phones even require fingerprint or face recognition abilities and they aren’t very safe as the hacker can easily trick your phone with a picture or other methods. And be careful with updating smart unlock option which automatically unlocks when you are home or when your smart watch is close by. These simple factors can be an easy answer for the hackers.
Be Prepared On How To Track And Lock Your Phone When Lost: If you have got things pre-planned and know how to track your phone and lock it when it is lost, would make things easier. If you haven’t had any backup plans then finding your phone would be harder and take time, and in that moment the hackers will be able to get the full access of your phone.
You have settings which makes your phone automatically erase itself when a certain amount of incorrect password attempts passes. There is also another option as ‘Find My device’ both in Apple and Google, this will locate your phone and reveal it in the map and you can also remotely erase or lock your phone from the website.
The Apple users can get this done from the iCloud website. To get this done in your phone you should have enabled the feature by going to the ‘Settings’>‘iCloud’> ‘Find My Phone’.
The Android users can do this by accessing the google service at ‘google.com/android/devicemanager’.
We can see everyone now has literally turned to use a smart phone for all their needs. As a smart phone can be used in various ways, we not only use it for communication or to kill out boredom by using the social media or capturing pictures, but we have also updated ourselves to earn something using our phones. We also have so saved in so many important data of ours, especially band details, account user name and passwords, official letters and emails, etc.
So, this way when a smart phone has turned out to fulfill so many needs of ours to make life easier, there is something else that we should start considering about too. It is not always the good ones that develop but initially along with it, we will have to see a lot of negativity too. So like that, we know how some hackers and intruders find ways to enter into your phones and grab personal details of yours. Which is not going to be something small? Your personal, official or any valuable data can be taken by them and even before you realize they are been stolen or lost, the hackers would use it against you. So we should always find ways to protect our phones from hackers or intruders. And that’s why today I am going to give you some tips and methods on how to safeguard your phones from such hacks.
How To Secure Smartphone From Hackers
Always Update The OS And Apps
We usually see our phones will have new updates to get done and even the apps will ask you to update them. These updates are released not just with little extra features added in but they will also have software updates and other updates like bug fix and so on, that will literally protect your phones from threats. So when you see any new updates available in your smart phone make sure you do update it so that you can protect your phone from any kind of breaches or intrusions and safe from dangers.
Always Update The OS And Apps
We usually see our phones will have new updates to get done and even the apps will ask you to update them. These updates are released not just with little extra features added in but they will also have software updates and other updates like bug fix and so on, that will literally protect your phones from threats. So when you see any new updates available in your smart phone make sure you do update it so that you can protect your phone from any kind of breaches or intrusions and safe from dangers.
Avoiding Public WiFi Networks
We would always do to free WiFi without considering any others factors. When we find any free WiFi connections in malls, shopping centers, public areas or any such place, we should also realize that the WiFi is free not only for you but for the hackers too. They will find ways to make you get into your trap using the simplest way through a free WiFi connection. So the next time you find any free connection make sure you think before you connect.
Use Two-Factor Authentication
This is a method which will work as another wall towards the security of your phone and apps. So in that case you can eventually add the two factor authentication and thereby when you try to enter in to the particular app then you will get a onetime code, and only with that you can log in to any of your accounts. So this way, you will be saved if anyone tries to enter into your personal accounts and thereby try hacking.
Always Go With Strong Passwords
We all hate the fact that we have to enter a long password to open up our phones or accounts. But that’s the best thing you can actually to do avoid from a hacker trying to easily crack your password and enter in. Your password should be strong and have numerals, upper case or lower case letters or symbols, which will make it very difficult to find out. And if possible change your password twice a year. So this way you can protect your phone from any illegal activists entering in.
Do Not Open Spam Or Phishing Emails
The easiest way the hackers have found is by entering into your phones using the emails, where they send you spam or phishing emails, which will have links in them for your click, and when you do so, your phone will fall a prey to the hackers. So avoid opening or clicking on any links in any promotional, advertising or any emails with some unknown attachments or even running updates that are prompted through emails.
Use Anti-virus Protection
The most important thing that you should do to protect your phone from hackers is to use an Anti-virus app. These apps will detect virus or any malware and alert you and at the same time it will protect the phone from any miscellaneous threats entering. Even in case your phone already has any virus in them, installing an Anti-virus app can help you clear them out. So get an Anti-virus and make it a shield of protection to your phone.
Check What You Are Installing To Your Phone
We all might have experienced where when we click the download button, the particular app before installing would give you a big page contained of several factors asking for you to grant permission. Those contents may include asking permission to get the ability to read all your files, to access your camera, to browse your gallery or even to listen over your microphone. Most of the time these options that we grant permission to can be illegitimate, it can open up space to different other negative aspects. There are so many malicious apps found in the Google playstore that exists for longer time before they are found inappropriate and get removed.
So you should be very careful of what you are installing and find out whether it is a genuine app. And also before providing permanent to everything that the app ask you for, read the terms and conditions. Do not install anything from websites that aren’t familiar.
Sometimes, an app could have been safe and good when you installed it, but then with time and many updates it could have got menacing. So if you find it a habit to check on your installed apps and look at what permission you have granted it for and what other features in your phone it is using.
If you are using an iOS smartphone then there you will find a lot of relevant information under the ‘Settings’ in ‘Privacy’ section.
But in Android it is not easy to find out information about an app that is installed in your phone. But to find it out you can use some of the security apps that is available in the Google playstore. It will help you out with the overview. Such apps will also give you alert when you try to install apps that are malicious and it would warn you if a phishing attack is trying to trick you enter your password in un-trusted websites or apps.
We are all used to save our password to auto login the next time, because it is very convenient. This makes a hacker open your browser and easily get access to all your accounts that are left unlocked. So it is highly recommended not to use auto login features. And also make sure you don’t use the same password to more than one app, because if an intruder finds a way to login to a specific account he literally gets the ability to access all the other accounts which has the same password.
Thereby to safeguard confidential data and accounts can also use a Password Manager app which requires you to re-enter master passwords.
You have settings which makes your phone automatically erase itself when a certain amount of incorrect password attempts passes. There is also another option as ‘Find My device’ both in Apple and Google, this will locate your phone and reveal it in the map and you can also remotely erase or lock your phone from the website.
The Apple users can get this done from the iCloud website. To get this done in your phone you should have enabled the feature by going to the ‘Settings’>‘iCloud’> ‘Find My Phone’.
The Android users can do this by accessing the google service at ‘google.com/android/devicemanager’.
That’s it, now we have checked on a few ways in which we can protect our phones from hackers and maintain our personal and official data along with our privacy from any threats. Following all the steps given above will definitely help us from any kind’s malware of virus attacks too. Get all the security measure done and have a threat less phone.