Staying safe on your smartphone

The launch of Apple’s iPhone 7 has been greeted with much enthusiasm.  The new phone comes with all of the latest bells and whistles, including the iPhone 7 Plus’ dual-lens camera.  However, when getting a new phone many people give little thought about what they need to do to protect their privacy and security.

Whether you are getting a new smartphone or continuing to use an older model, everyone should be taking precautions to protect their privacy and security.

Here are 10 ways to protect your privacy and security on your smartphone:

1.  Password protect your smartphone and use a complex password that cannot be easily guessed.  A good way to create a strong password using capital letters, small letters and symbols is to take a phrase, such as IDon’tLikePasswords and just add a couple of exclamation points or other symbols at the end to make a password like IDon’tLikePasswords!!!.  This is a strong password, and you can actually use this as a way of creating a base password that you can use to create unique passwords for all of your accounts by merely adding a couple of letters at the end of the password to customize the password for particular accounts.  For instance, your Amazon password could be IDon’tLikePasswords!!!ama.

2.  Particularly in these days in which ransomware presents such a tremendous threat, you should regularly backup the data, photos and videos from your phone to your computer, the cloud or even a USB external hard drive.  Depending on the type of phone you have, your smartphone may already provide a mechanism for backing up your data in the cloud or you can get an app which can be used to do this.

3.  Don’t store confidential information on your smartphone.  Hackers can’t steal what you don’t store on your smartphone.

4.  Disable Bluetooth when you aren’t using it.  If you are not pairing it to something, such as your car, you should disable it so that nearby hackers can’t connect to your smartphone.

5.  Install mobile security.  There are a number of good security software programs that can not only provide protection from viruses and malware, but also can help prevent unauthorized access to apps, help detect phishing emails and even provide some protection from ransomware.  However, it is important to remember that the best security software is always going to be up to 30 days behind the latest zero-day defects, which are newly discovered software vulnerabilities that hackers and identity thieves exploit particularly before defenses are created.

6.  Due to the fact that no security software program is totally effective, it is critical to refrain from clicking on links in text messages and emails unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate.  Sending malware through phishing emails and text messages or spear phishing emails and text messages particularly tailored to you that lure you into trusting the email or message and clicking on a link that downloads malware on to your smartphone is an effective tactic used by hackers and identity thieves.  Most of the biggest data breaches and ransomware attacks have started with spear phishing.  Unfortunately, often we may be partly to blame for being vulnerable to spear phishing because many people share too much personal information on social media that is gathered and used by the hackers to craft spear phishing emails and text messages that appear trustworthy.

7.  Public Wi-Fi is notoriously insecure, and you can’t even be sure when you use public Wi-Fi if you are using the Wi-Fi of the coffee shop where you may be sitting or the Wi-Fi of the identity thief sitting nearby.  Consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which enables you to send encrypted communications through a separate and secure private network while you are on a public network.

8.  Keep your operating system up to date with the latest patches.  Here is a link to the latest security updates for Apple’s iOS.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207145  Some phones will automatically install the latest security updates; however, you can go to your Settings app to see if you need to install new updates.  Delays in patching your operating system can make you vulnerable to attacks for which there already is a defense.

9.  Turn off auto-fill.  Although it may take a few moments longer to input your personal information such as passwords and credit card information each time you visit a website you commonly use, it is important to not store that information on your smartphone, thereby leaving it vulnerable to hackers.

10.  Only get apps from legitimate sources such as Google Play and iTunes because the danger of getting malware-infected apps is just too great when you go to sources that may be operated by cyber criminals or merely do not have effective vetting processes.  No vetting process is perfect, and malware-infected apps can be found everywhere, but you have a much better chance of getting a legitimate app from sources such as Google Play and iTunes.

Making privacy and security a part of your regular smartphone use is not difficult.  It just takes a little effort.

Steve Weisman, an expert in preventing cyber scams and identity theft, is a lawyer and professor at Bentley University. He writes the blog scamicide.com, where he provides daily update information about the latest scams. His new book is Identity Theft Alert.