Your smartphone doesn’t get much downtime. Like most people, you probably use it for work, leisure, and personal activities. What happens if something goes wrong with your phone, for example, if it’s lost or stolen? Even worse, what if your smartphone gets hacked? Let’s try to prevent that from happening to you.
Around the world, many people use their smartphones for dual purposes. A survey revealed that 81% of people use the same phone for both personal and professional activities . The same survey showed that 87% of companies require their employees to use a smartphone for work.
Regardless, the security implications remain the same. A smartphone containing both work and personal data is a prime target. Hackers target smartphones because they are often unprotected, giving them easy access to your personal information and the corporate networks you use. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
In other words, as a professional with a smartphone, you are an attractive target.
Protect your smartphone from hacking
As a parent and professional, I’ve compiled some tips to help you protect your smartphone from hacking, in order to safeguard your personal and professional life:
1. Add extra protection with your face, finger, pattern, or PIN.
Let’s start with the basics. Locking your phone with facial recognition, a fingerprint, a pattern, or a PIN is your most basic form of protection, especially in case of loss or theft. (Your options will vary depending on the device, operating system, and manufacturer.) For even stronger protection, take additional steps. Secure the accounts on your phone with strong passwords and use two-factor authentication in apps that offer it, doubling your line of defense.
2. Use a VPN
In other words, don’t connect to unprotected public Wi-Fi networks . A VPN masks your connection from hackers, allowing you to connect privately when you’re on unsecured public networks in an airport, café, hotel, etc. With a VPN connection, you’ll know that your sensitive data, documents, and activities are protected from spying, which is a good thing considering the amount of personal and professional activity we manage using our smartphones.
3. Stick to official app stores
Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store have implemented measures to prevent the publication of potentially dangerous apps. Malicious apps are often found outside of app stores. They can run in the background and compromise your personal data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, and more—virtually everything you keep on your phone. Furthermore, when browsing app stores, carefully review app descriptions and ratings before downloading. Malicious and counterfeit apps can still find their way into app stores. Here are some ways to prevent these dangerous apps from infiltrating your phone .
4. Back up your phone’s data
Backing up your phone is always a good idea for two reasons:
- First, it makes the transition to a new phone easier by transferring backed-up data from your old device to the new one.
- Secondly, this ensures that your data stays with you in case your phone is lost or stolen, allowing you to remotely erase data from your lost or stolen phone while keeping a secure copy of that data stored in the cloud.
iPhones and Android phones offer simple ways to back up your phone regularly .
5. Learn how to remotely lock or erase your phone in case of an emergency
Imagine the worst-case scenario: your phone is gone. Gone for good. Either it’s irretrievably lost, or it’s been stolen. What should you do? Lock it remotely or wipe its data completely. While wiping the phone might seem like a drastic measure, if you perform regular backups as described above, your data is safe in the cloud and ready to be restored. In short, this means hackers won’t be able to access your sensitive information or your company’s data, which can protect you from problems and safeguard your business. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide to remotely wiping devices , and Google also offers a guide for Android users .
6. Get rid of old applications and update the ones you keep.
We all download apps, use them once, and then forget they’re even on our phones. Take a few moments to scroll through your screen and see which ones you no longer use, then delete them along with their data. Some apps are linked to an account that may also store data on your phone. Take the time to delete these accounts to erase all off-phone data. Each additional app is another app that needs updating or could potentially introduce a security issue. In this age of data breaches and vulnerabilities, it’s wise to delete old apps. As for the ones you keep, update them regularly and enable automatic updates if possible. Updates not only bring new features to apps but also often fix security problems.
7. Protect your phone
Since your phone contains so much of your life, installing security software can protect you and the data you store on it. Whether you have an Android or iOS device , McAfee+ can protect your data, purchases, and payments.
