Following revelations that even the Wi-Fi security is compromised, there is hardly any way that you are covered with your smartphones. In fact, it gets more serious understanding that your phone can easily be hacked and many information be taken off. This is the reason why you need to hack-proof your smartphone.
I know that most of us wouldn’t think we have any information that could be stolen, but you can never tell. At least, you may be doing some financial transactions or some other things.
From the data supplied by the CIA, none of us is immune to the hacker, not even those using iPhone. Nevertheless, iPhone is still more secure than the Android or even windows phones.
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Here are ways to hack-proof your smartphone
- Be careful of what you install
Most times we just download things we don’t really need or even fully understand. This is very dangerous to the security of your smartphone as by installing some applications, you give the express permission for your files to be accessed. Sometimes, such installations may even give access to access discussions on your phone and other things you may not even know.
- Get the best antivirus possible
There are many antiviruses out there at the moment that can do a lot in securing your phone not only from viruses that may destroy your files and data but at the same time, keep you protected from hackers and people of similar ilk.
Antiviruses such as the AVG AntiVirus can help you even have your passwords well managed and controlled as much as you need it.
- Keep your smartphone up to date
In as much as you need to be careful of the kinds of things you install, for those you allow on your phone, you need to always have everything updated. More importantly, to hack-proof your phone, you need to have every mobile security on the phone up to date.
Having the security alone is not as important as having it updated because newer ways are designed to access your phones so by updating, you are able to keep your security ready for whatever may come.
- Always keep your Bluetooth off when in public
One of the easiest ways to access a smartphone is through a Bluetooth that has been left open. One can access your phone and copy or delete files, or even do some other things. The thing is that most times we take the Bluetooth for granted. As much as possible, you need to always keep it off when not in use.
- Never leave your phone without password
A lot of things could happen with your phone. You can carelessly keep it and forget, or someone may even steal it. This is why you need to have it always passworded because you don’t want no one snooping around and trying to get information or things they don’t have business getting.
The best way to set the password is to use something that is not your birthday, or anyone’s birthday close to you. Also, using numbers and letters is wise and if you can have more than three characters as a password, that will be perfect.
- Watch out for smishing
I can bet you have never heard this word before now, but that is okay. It means some of those unsolicited messages that come and request that you click some links.
Avoid opening any link with messages you don’t ask for, most especially from people you don’t know. This is because when you click the links sometimes, you start the installation of something that could be dangerous to your phone much later. To be clear, some of these messages are even sent by hackers.
- Avoid browsing with public network
Sometimes you may get free network from banks or even schools and government agencies. The problem is that just as most of them are not secure, they are potentially easy for hackers to target people using them. As such you are safer when not using them. If you must, ensure that you use a virtual private network, as it will keep all your data encrypted from any hacking or hackers.
- Avoid Auto-login as much as you can
It is very convenient for us not to always put in our passwords when trying to login to different online sites or even our emails. Some people can even go as far as having auto-login for their bank apps and other financial transactions. This is very dangerous even when you have a password on your phone. As much as possible avoid this because your phone may fall into the wrong hands and everything may go wrong.
- Don’t have active App notifications
While app notifications are again convenient, there is one problem with them; they will never keep your secrete. A notification on something very important may come when the phone is in the wrong hands and it will easily give you away or leak something you are up to, to someone that shouldn’t know.
- Have passwords for different apps
I know the question will be why should you do this when you have already set passwords for your phone? The truth is if you are serious and need to hack-proof your smartphone, nothing is too much because hackers would go any length to take out anything they want from your phone. Having each app locked helps in making it hard for anyone to get information from your phone.
Locking each app also ensures that important things like your bank app and email are saved.
- Delete apps that you don’t use
Obviously, as you must have guessed by now, one of the easiest ways on how to make sure your phone isn’t hacked is through taking care of your apps.
Surprisingly, we all have those apps that are useless to us, and we either even don’t understand completely, or have never used and may never use. One way to hack-proof your mobile phone is to delete all those apps. If you don’t delete them, they may get outdated and you may not update them and when they run in the background, they would provide a breeding ground for hackers.
- Always go for the latest operating version of operating systems
This will work because of the behavior of some viruses such as the Toast, which is able to completely hijack your phone. According to Wired when writing on the “toast overlay” virus, they revealed that Palo Alto Network has found out that all versions of the Android devices with OS version < 8.0, are very vulnerable to this attack. What this means is that there are viruses that can attack your operating system because it is rather outdated.
- Encrypt all of your messages
This is likewise important if you are asking, “how to make sure your phone isn’t hacked?” This is because it makes sure that any message you send goes to only the person it has been sent to. It ensures that if someone else gets hold of the message, the person won’t be able to read the message because of the end-to-end encryption.
- Outside your phone
Just when you think you have understood how to secure your android phone from hackers or even your iPhone, or you think you know how to block hackers from your cell phone, you will then realize that a lot can still happen. Someone from somewhere can still access your online accounts. In the case of this, you need some special apps like the LogDog that can monitor your online accounts and hints you of any suspicious login in any part of the world. The good thing with this is that it is available for both Android and iOS devices.
