Team Partners Telecommunications

Smartphone and tablet security

Posted on Nov 25, 2022  | Tags: security

We’ve spent a couple of months thinking about cyber security and the steps that all of us should take to protect ourselves and our businesses from interference. We’ve looked at data back-up and how important it is not to rely on your own computer as a kind of ‘home safe’ where everything is kept without a thought towards further security. We’ve also considered malware, the damage this can do if we allow it onto our devices and how ransomware can destroy lives and livelihoods. And this month?

Smartphones and tablets, and how to keep them safe, which, if you read last month’s blog, is a subject in a similar groove.

We wonder if you would agree that most of us tend to forget that our smartphones are in essence no more than a computer, and powerful computers at that. And that in carrying our smartphones and laptops around with us we are potentially exposing these, and any networks with which they’re connected, to risk. This being the case, there’s every reason for us to be even more protective of their security than we are of our desktop computers. There are a number of protective measures we can take, and here are just a few:

1. It may sound simple, but it remains a fact that significant numbers of device owners think of themselves as being completely safe from any form of hacking, computer fraud, cyber-attack or simple theft. They must do, because they persist in having stupidly easy passwords, or none at all. Please! Enable your devices security system, choose a complex password and if your device uses face or fingerprint recognition, use it!
2. Activate your device’s automatic update facility. No matter whether your device is Android, Windows or IOS, the manufacturer will have a team of employees working full time to counter the world’s cyber criminals who themselves are working full time to find those chinks in your devices security that will allow them to make a killing. Don’t make it easy for them! Sadly, this also means that we have to acknowledge that built in obsolescence is a thing and that all our devices will cease to be supported by their manufacturer way before we feel they should be! Upgrade and remain secure.
3. Most of us know that we can track the whereabouts of our mobile devices from another device, a lot of our spouses depend on it…but did you know that you can also get software that can remotely lock access to your device, retrieve all its data onto a back-up and then also remotely erase all its data. Clever. The generic term for this sort of software is MDM, Mobile Device Management, and a good place to start researching it is on the National Cyber Security Centre’s website (https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/ncsc-it-mdm-products-which-one-best-1)
4. Something else a lot of us tend to ignore is updating apps. And, whilst we’re at it, removing those apps we no longer use. We may think that because we don’t open them, they are passively doing nothing but that’s not always the case, so delete those you no longer require and update the ones you do, regularly.
5. It is worrying how many public WiFi hotspots are not secure and fail to meet even basic security standards. You just cannot tell, and the moment you log on to an unsecured network, your device can be accessed by a 3^rd party. Many apps also maintain your private log-in details whilst they’re open, so you risk these being stolen too. Much safer to use your mobile data network and tether to that, or use a dongle. You can also choose to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), in which case everything gets encrypted before it is sent across the internet.

It all sounds simplistic and it is. How many of us cheerfully log on to the most available WiFi though, or seek to update our apps regularly. Hmmm!