Mobile technology is certainly convenient—in fact, many people seem practically unable to do without it. Be careful though, because your mobile phone may be considerably more vulnerable than you think. Hacking isn’t just the stuff of cheesy science fiction anymore. It can happen to anybody, but it doesn’t have to happen to you. Here are 7 tips that you can use to keep the phone you love safe from hackers. Follow some (or all) of these, and you’ll make your mobile phone much safer.
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1.Rooting your devices:- Unless you have a very strong reason to be rooting your phone, don’t do it, because you are in essence messing up Android’s permission model. However if you have professional requirements that cannot be met by the stock ROM then only use those custom ROMs that have an active community and possibly have an open code base.
2. Set a strong password:- Leaving your phone open or unattended for only a few minutes can lead to someone accessing or extracting a lot of precious information and data. Which is why having a strong lock-screen security is fundamental to keep your Smartphone away from redundant users. This step is one of the easiest ways to keep your data pretty safe from thefts.
3. Be careful of what you install:- When you install a smartphone app, you may be asked to grant it various permissions, including the ability to read your files, access your camera or listen in to your microphone. There are legitimate uses for these capabilities, but they’re potentially open to abuse: think before you approve the request. That applies especially to Android users, as Google’s app-vetting process isn’t as strict as Apple’s, and there have been reports of malicious apps spending months on the Play Store before being spotted and taken down.
Android also lets you install apps from third-party sources: this allows services such as Amazon’s competing Appstore to operate, but it also provides an easy way for rogue apps to get onto your phone. I’d strongly advise against installing anything from an unfamiliar website.
4. Spy apps:- There is a glut of phone monitoring apps designed to covertly track someone’s location and snoop on their communications. Many are advertised to suspicious partners or distrustful employers, but still more are marketed as a legitimate tool for safety-concerned parents to keep tabs on their kids. Such apps can be used to remotely view text messages, emails, internet history, and photos; log phone calls and GPS locations; some may even hijack the phone’s mic to record conversations made in person. Basically, almost anything a hacker could possible want to do with your phone, these apps would allow.
5. Keep Your Device Updated:- One of the simplest ways to protect your phone from unwanted interference is by making sure it’s up to date. Keep your phone running the latest operating system at all times, since updates are often designed specifically to close loopholes that hackers have found ways to exploit. Can constant software updates be annoying? Absolutely, but they might also save your phone in the event that someone tries to hack it. That’s well worth the annoyance that comes with a slightly different interface.
6. Don’t leave online services unlocked:- Auto-login is a very convenient feature, especially since a virtual keyboard can make typing passwords a chore. It’s also a huge liability: an intruder simply needs to open your browser to gain access to all your online accounts.
Ideally, therefore, you shouldn’t use auto-login features at all. If you must, use a password manager app that requires you to regularly re-enter a master password. And don’t use the same password for more than one app or service: if that one password gets found out, it can be used to access a whole range of private information. This applies even if you’re perfectly scrupulous about keeping your smartphone secure: hackers regularly break into online services to steal user credentials, which they then try out on other sites.
7. Install an anti-virus:- If you browse websites and download content from the net to your smartphone, install an antivirus app on your mobile. There are plenty of free anti-virus apps available, like AVG Free and Avast, however, we recommend you spend a small amount and buy yourself Norton or Kaspersky Android antivirus app.These will keep your mobile browsers safe from viruses and tell you which sites are safe to browse.
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Mobile