Secure Your Smartphone

Keep it simple: use these easy, super-valuable tips to help minimize the risks involved in protecting your information. 

It’s almost certain that you, as an entrepreneur, are carrying a smartphone around. We can also bet that you have some extremely valuable information on your phone, including access to sensitive and critical services and online accounts.

Set up a good PIN, password, or fingerprint.

A pin will make it more difficult for an unauthorized user to gain access to your phone, so make sure you choose a reliable PIN and not a date of birth, because this will be the first thing an attacker will try. If you can set a real alphanumeric password or a fingerprint scanner without too much trouble, you’ll be in a much better position. Android users, please do not use a pattern, because it’s easily traced from your smudgy fingers.

Set your phone to lock immediately.

There’s no use in setting your phone to lock after 5 minutes of inactivity. Ensure that your phone locks and prompts for a password as soon as you press the home button or the screen goes into sleep mode. Make sure your phone screen goes to sleep early; it’s good for the security of your information and your battery life, too.

Set your device to wipe after failed attempts.

This can be a dangerous thing to do around kids, and I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have a proper cloud-based back-up and synchronization. This feature will completely wipe your device if it falls into the wrong hands. With a good, unpredictable password or even PIN, you can sleep better of your device is lost this way.

Enable “find my device” and remote wipe features.

Such features are now included in every smartphone platform. Make sure you enable them on Apple iCloud, or install Android Device Manager to make sure you can track or wipe your stolen or lost device. The feature is already available on BlackBerrys, but in this case, you should actually feel grateful if someone steals it from you.

Double-check your apps.

Make sure you read and research apps before installing them, especially the ones being floated on social media networks as the next big thing. Read the reviews, and spend some time reading about the apps. If you’re using Android, make sure you download the app from the Google Play store and disable “unknown sources” in the settings menu. You can also inspect the required permission before installing any app, and enable the app verification feature in the Security Settings menu.

Avoid removable storage.

Removable storage and MicroSD cards are common in most non-Apple smartphones. Such storage can be dangerous, since it can easily be snatched from the phone. If you really need the extra storage, make sure you use removable storage for non-essential things like camera images or large files you don’t care about.

With this information, you’ll be in a better position to ensure that your information is not compromised. Stay safe.

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