More and more people are using their smartphone and increasingly lower is the average age at which one starts using one, but how much do consumers know about ‘security’ when it comes to smartphones? Security on the phone is important because more and more personal information passes through this type of devices (email, online payments, listening microphones for digital assistants and so on).
Are there really any security risks on smartphones or is it all marketing to encourage the use of antivirus? A little ‘both, one could say. If you rely on ‘safe’ and popular applications downloaded from the official Google store you can sleep peacefully, while also making sure how and where you surf the mobile web as you do when you surf the computer. If instead you are ‘geeks’ and you install applications from little-known developers or, even worse, you install applications from sources that are not the Google Play Store then it would be good to have an antivirus, even in the most recent versions of Android there is the Play protect feature which in a sense serves as antivirus as it analyzes all the applications installed on the smartphone to verify their security.
In the most recent Samsung smartphones, when you try to perform a ‘device maintenance’ analysis, you might notice that even if you press the ‘optimize now’ button, you do not reach 100% but the percentage is limited to 90% by recommending the activation of an antivirus. If you are not a geek, as mentioned above, it is difficult to fall into smartphone viruses and then you can ‘do without activating the antivirus scan on your phone’, so you save a little ‘battery.
Samsung has listed the “11 rules to have the smartphone always in order and safe,” rules of common sense how to be noticed in the use of passwords, activate remote control of the phone, update the phone and pay attention to messages and suspicious e-mail. Below are the tip styled by Samsung technicians.
11 SIMPLE RULES TO BRING YOUR SMARTPHONE
BLOCK AND PROTECTION – DIGITAL IMPRESSION OR IRIDE BETTER PASSWORD
1. Set a screen lock type: the best way to protect your smartphone is to use fingerprint or iris reading. If you really want to use a password, avoid using 123456 or 000000 or your name, that of your child or your dog. Anyone, even a stranger at the park, could guess;
2. Do not disable the SIM lock PIN to ensure maximum protection of the card itself and the data it contains. If you do not remember the PIN that you received with your SIM card, change it to four digits that you can easily remember, naturally avoiding putting discounted numbers (see above);
3. Encryption, the unknown one … to have a smartphone that is hacker-proof, the last step is to encrypt your phone’s data. It means inserting, only upon switching on, an additional code to unlock the data that would be better different from the eventual unlock code of the screen. In this way only you who have the code to unlock data can access it, while an attacker would not be able to. The data stored on the MicroSD are also protected. To activate the ‘encryption’ on a Samsung Smartphone simply go to the Settings >Secure Screen unlock >Start encryption and enter a code of at least 6 digits made up of letters and numbers. For any other smartphone the procedure should be very similar.
ACTIVATE REMOTE CONTROL
4. Enable remote control of your device: being able to geolocalize or lock your phone at a distance is important to protect personal data in case of loss or theft. On any latest generation smartphone you can set this function by accessing the settings or your own account or the brand’s website, in the case of Samsung, the site for access is www.findmymobile.samsung.com;
UPDATE THE TELEPHONE AND ALWAYS KEEP IT IN ORDER
5. Keep the mobile device always up-to-date: updates often include new or updated features against possible vulnerabilities, as well as ensuring the perfect functionality of the product over time;
6. Install applications only from official stores: Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Samsung Galaxy Apps are the safest choice and offer more protection than applications from unofficial sources;
7. Be careful when you download a new app: when you download an app, you may be asked to access your phone’s data and features, such as your camera, address book or calendar – even when you do not need it! Before authorizing these functions to be light-hearted, it is therefore important to carefully read the authorization requests to decide whether or not to allow access. On the one hand they are often requests for authorizations necessary to make the app work better, but on the other hand it is important to decide whether it is acceptable for the latter to access these data on the smartphone;
PROTECT YOURSELF AND BE ACCEPTED AGAINST THE UNMARKED
8. Pay attention while providing personal information: phishing is a type of scam through which an attacker tries to trick the victim into pretending to be a trustworthy body often through suspicious e-mails especially if they include links or attachments. Check directly with the sender if you suspect before clicking the link. If it turns out to be a phishing mail, delete it immediately;
9. Activate the antivirus: this solution will help you protect your data. Usually in the most recent smartphones these solutions are integrated into the settings, just activate them;
10. Smartphone payments for shopping online with credit or debit cards and for contact-less payments can be further protected: beyond the pin and the keys provided by credit cards and banks, it is You can set the fingerprint and iris recognition. It seems complicated but it is really easy to add these security measures;
11. Restore the device before reselling it: if you intend to resell the current smartphone as used, make sure to restore it to factory conditions, to prevent information and personal content from being stored there. Just go to the settings, then in general management and at the end click “factory data” to delete all traces of your data. Of course you must remember before saving the data you want to keep on another device.