Mobile Security

We are now in the days of cyber warfare. Modern technology is being used to carry out all sorts of exploits and the introduction of smartphones opens up new opportunities for those looking to benefit from it. Smartphones are essentially a phone and a computer in one. Phones can be hacked and computers can be hacked. Now not only can your computer be hacked via the internet but your phone can also be hacked through either the internet, bluetooth or RF signals. Additionally, spyware can use the GPS function on your phone to constantly track your location and your phones functions, such as calls/texts, could be exploited which may then cost you money. Mobile security is of utmost importance.

 

Common sense and knowing better than to put private information onto devices made to be hacked is the first line of defense against it. They are all hoping that the public won't know better than to place their data on them and will make it extremely easy for them to get data that normally would have been out of reach in exchange for the convenience of using a more portable device or mobile unit that they don't have to have connected to a power source or full system to use.

Easier or more mobile is not equivalent to stability, security, or productivity. Usually it's equivalent to the opposite because of all the corners that are cut and all the malicious people involved at the corporate and individual levels who stand to benefit financially from exploiting others in this way. People need to learn that easier is not always better, and sometimes it is dangerous because the ease of use makes it destructive and harmful to the user.

It's absolute madness for people to be leaving their information on portable phones with or without encryption while they are connected to global networks that anyone and everyone can jump on to in some form. The barriers are not that strict, and we're talking about a global audience where billions of people stand to benefit from attacking others. Not good. Not good at all. There are ways to protect against it by using VPNs and refusing to use parts of the system that collect telemetry and other data or encrypting a tunnel to a physical machine with the right security restrictions to circumvent most of these issues, but not even that is totally secure because both iOS and Android have backdoors built in to the systems themselves, just as Windows does. The only way to keep your data safe is to use very strict control systems, virtual machine layers, live CDs, and not save anything anywhere except to one or two flash drives that you physically control and do not leave connected to any phyiscal machine that ever touches the internet.

At that point, the only thing you'd really have to worry about are van eck phreaking attempts if they really want what you have (now known as TEMPEST), but that's rare...at least, ten thousand times more rare than people trying to get into restricted systems by jumping onto networks of routers that are not properly secured, backdoor code on the router even if properly secured, or making an attack on one isolated machine to use it as a vector to get to the rest and the data that they want. Your phone should be a phone...not a computer, and not something to exploit! Keep your private information private by taking the right steps to secure it. I know it's not "easy" or "as much fun" to do that...but work to protect yourself is never meant to be easy nor fun...just safe so that you're never harmed by it.

 

@IBMPC8088 Sadly most of the time people don't know better, so those cyber criminals are right on this one most of the time. I know a lot people like that who think they are super safe using their mobile and putting their personal info on there. Some even bank with it! or use that new PayPal app... It's crazy.

 

People should always think about security, privacy and stop announcing where they are, what they are doing all the time on social media sites for their own good and safety. I turn off my location for everything on my phone unless I need to use it.

 

That is a concern you can easily address with some common sense. If you actually review the permissions the apps you are trying to install require, you could try and think about what those permissions are needed for. If you don't want to share your location, simply don't grant those permissions. There are countless applications that can help you protect yourself better by choosing which apps have access to which permissions, even being able to feed them dummy information.

 

I don't keep my bluetooth or wifi on in order to avoid contact with unrecognized devices or networks.When I do file transfer or bluetooth sharing, I only share ,my device with the people I trust. I have antivirus installed on my phone which also helps be to keep my phone safe. I also have disabled GPS option on my phone

 

These are all good options that I'm really starting to appreciate as I learn about cybersecurity. It's one thing to read about a newspaper article, but it's another thing to know all of the different ways a hacker or cyberterrorist can steal, erase, or transmit your information with or without our knowledge.