How to make our smartphone safe in future
By: Mohammad Zeeshan
Tags: Smartphone Security, Smartphone Repair, Smartphone Safe, Smartphones, Médium

Not only will you lose your contacts or text messages when your mobile phones are stolen, but you may also even lose access to your own list of sensitive data, such as credentials for bank accounts or your identity. Here’s how you can make sure you’re not a target of any of these attacks and protect your data properly, here some basic tips to make your smartphone safe in the future.

1. Keep Your Phone Locked

One potential threat is the stolen from your phone, which could give the thief complete access to your personal data. Be sure to have a lock on your screen to prevent this. It’s up to you and the capabilities of your device whether this is a passcode, pattern, fingerprint or face recognition.

2. Set Secure Password

Recent research has shown that about 30% of smartphone users are still not using a lock screen code for protection on their app. This is the least you can do on your mobile, as all the current smartphones come with a password to protect your lock screen, while many older devices now come with a fingerprint sensor, this is the simple process to make smartphone safe in future.

It will make it harder for a hacker to guess them by setting strong passwords on your phones. Setting a different password for each app is also suggested. This way, if you find a password, the hacker will not have access to all of your data.

3. Lock Your Apps

This functionality is now provided by some smartphone brands. Installed apps can be independently locked with a passcode or fingerprint scan. This adds to your data and contains an extra layer of security, particularly if you handed over your phone to someone to display something. You can get this feature by installing third-party apps such as AppLock or Norton AppLock in case your phone doesn’t have it.

4. Must Connect To Secure Wi-Fi

Sure, the proliferation of public WiFi has boomed with Railwire and Google Station in India with as many as 400 railway stations that have become popular for their free internet services.

Although Google now has a vision of expanding such services beyond railway stations, it is important to note that connecting to any WiFi network in a public area carries its own threat because there is no usual way of knowing if the link is safe

Although web browsing is still good, consider using such WiFi services only when you most obviously have to do it or when you desperately need to complete your job. It is important to ensure that when connected to a public WiFi network, you are not sending or receiving sensitive data or making payments or transactions.

5. Keep Your Apps And OS Update

While this may be one of the most basic things to follow, many users don’t bother with it. Google regularly pushes security updates and patches to smartphone brands that, through the air updates, pass it on to users. It is always recommended to test and download device updates for your smartphone when and when they are available to improve the security and quality of your app.

Similarly, app developers frequently add to their applications on the play store features and security updates. Before installing the update, they even give details of what the new update adds to the user app. We recommend checking the play store for updates on a regular basis and making sure you have the latest version of the app installed on your phone.

6. Don’t Root Your Phone

Jailbreaking or rooting your phone is when you unlock your phone and remove the security set up by the manufacturers to allow you to access anything you want. To access app stores other than the official ones, it may be tempting to jailbreak or root your phone, but this puts you at high risk. The applications in these illegal stores have not been scrutinized and can easily hack into your phone and steal your data.

7. Use Two Factor Authentication

This security feature is overlooked by most users as it is a challenge to use every time. Authentication with two factors allows you to authenticate that time with a passcode plus a unique authentication code created through an app or sent through OTP. Most of the services that offer the feature include Google, Facebook, Instagram, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Dropbox, PayPal, Evernote, etc.

8. Back-Up Your Phone Data

How often do you store or back up images from your camera or other devices? Only when you’re getting a new device? Yes, that’s often the case and, sadly, for many reasons, it’s not a good idea. If your phone is stolen, destroyed or lost irreversibly, if you have them backed up, you can quickly recover your pictures. You can also wipe the data from the phone remotely if you suspect that your phone has been stolen without worrying that you will end up stumbling under the sofa on your phone, beating yourself for nothing to delete all your valuable data.

Originally published at https://www.techiezee.com