Tips for Protecting and Securing Your Smart Phone

We no longer use our phones only for communication, we used them to check our emails, check our social networks, play games, browse the web etc. It is basically our personal computer that we keep nearby, which is why our smartphone contains lots of sensitive information.

If you are logged into all of your accounts, anyone who gets their hands on your phone can use your profiles and manipulate sensitive data. Furthermore, if your phone has valuable information, once it is damaged that information can be lost forever, which can present a problem.

Locking your phone

The first line of defense that you can use to protect your special data is to simply lock your phone. We either use a pattern lock or pin to do this, but we rarely secure our phones properly with these features. We are very often afraid that we will forget your pin or pattern, so our password ends up being something simple that is easy to remember.

As a consequence, someone can get your phone and just type 1234 or write the letter N or letter Z as a pattern and that person is in. Also, when we want to use our phone we want to enter immediately, and we opt for a simple password just for our own convenience.

If you are doing this, you are making a huge mistake. First of all, it will only take you a second or two more if you use a more complicated password. Second, if you frequently use the password or the same pattern, you won’t forget it. You can just write it down on a piece of paper for the first couple of days, or use a long and complex number that you already know.

Third, a lot of new phones have a feature that allows your fingerprint to unlock them, so use this feature as well. It will be convenient for you to access the data, but anyone else would have to know a complicated password.  

Be careful what you download

Another thing you need to worry about is what you download. If you love using all sorts of apps and games, then you might be at risk. First of all, even if you do download something from Google Play, make sure that you go through all of the reviews, sure nowadays it’s almost impossible to have an app that can damage your phone on the Google Play store, but check the reviews just to be safe.

Also, do not trust all of the reviews, since some people give low grades just because they are not impressed, so since there are a lot of these harsh punishments going around, do not be too biased based on the grade of the app.

Avoid using other unreliable app stores, and never, and I do mean never download .apk files from random websites. Sure, not all of them are viruses, but the risk is too great and certainly not worth the price. Many people have already suffered for being this reckless, so there’s no need to test out the theories yourself.  

Mobile phone insurance

Just having content insurance won’t be enough. This will only cover you if your phone is stolen from your home, and this is highly unlikely, considering that it is always in your pocket. You need to find insurance that is designed specifically for cell phones. When you are picking an insurance provider make sure you compare their deals, and see how they cover the damage. Do you get a new phone or do they replace the parts that are no longer working etc. Also remember that caution is the best security you can get, so just be more careful.  

Multiple accounts and data back ups

Lastly, it is never wise to put all of the eggs into one basket, so if you have sensitive data on your phone you should create a backup. This is not only because your phone might get damaged or stolen, but also because you’ll have to use the factory reset feature a few times. Also, do not keep all of the info on one user account, create multiple accounts and distribute the data, so that if one account is hacked the other ones can still be safe.

As you can see, it’s quite easy to protect your smartphone or any sensitive data you might have on it, just make sure you fully utilize the existing features and you’ll be fine.

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