Mobile phones are becoming targeted more often of late, especially the payment apps as more and more individuals have been doing online shopping in recent times as a result of the lockdown restrictions and risks of going into public places during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A lot more youngsters are also using mobile phones as their parents want to communicate with them more easily in recent times with many unsafe applications being downloaded on phones that aren’t being kept secure by inexperienced children. There are numerous other aspects required to prevent being attacked by cyber criminals on mobile phones, as described below:
- Do not leave your mobile device unattended with others
Data on your phone can be transferred to another device without knowing that this has happened if your phone is left unattended somewhere in public. Certain people even offer to charge phone on the behalf of others which needs to be avoided and back-up battery charging devices used instead rather to prevent any abuse of data happening. - Avoid using unknown free public WiFi
Many restaurants and hotels provide free WiFi access for smartphones but one has to be very careful to obtain the correct user name and password for such access as cyber criminals often gain access to mobile devices by creating a fake login that is very similar to the genuine WiFi login without users realising that they have chosen the wrong one. Installing an app like
F-Secure Freedome VPN gives you invisibility online when accessing WiFi connections in public. - Don’t access dodgy URLs
Unauthorised and dodgy URLs are used by cyber criminals to have users on computers and mobile devices submit personal information, such as bank account logins and passwords, that they then gain to make access to the accounts themselves. One has to avoid accessing any URLs that are not identified as being genuine, especially if it requires one to avoid taking advantage of offers that are appearing as being too generous and friendly. - Ideally use a fingerprint or face recognition for a mobile device unlocking
All mobile devices need to be set up with locking to prevent someone else accessing them if they are ever stolen. Having only a PIN for the lock can be a challenge because a person can watch you entering the PIN without you realising it. Fingerprints and face recognition help make accessing the device more secure and having a limited time of only a c few minutes before the device re-locks itself helps reduce the risk of someone accessing it illegally. - Install a remote wipe function
By installing an anti-malware application on your device you can have it wiped clean if the device is stolen. The only challenge is ensuring that you have backed up your data into the cloud on a regular basis in case you do need to wipe your device clean. - Install a security app like F-Secure ID Protection
Having something like F-Secure’s ID Protection or F-Secure Total that includes F-Secure Freedom VPN as well, helps you protect your personal information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card numbers by alerting you of your breached online services and by giving you specific instructions on how to recover from the incident with minimum damage. The app also protects your identity by offering a secure storage for all your passwords and by acting as an easy-to-use password manager.