Hey Readers! Welcome back to Yognut. Everyone uses smartphones in the world. There are more than 5 billions users of smartphones and this number is increasing day by day. Maximum people’s are aware of their smartphone security. It’s will be worse than your smartphone is hacked. It feels the same as someone robbed your house. So, What we can do to secure our smartphone? I found some best 12 Ways to Secure your Smartphone from hackers.
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What happens when someone takes your smartphone?
All things in your smartphone like your call history, contacts, messages, photos, videos and everything that you store in your smartphone. They can use these details against you. They can reset your emails and social media accounts and then login into your emails and social media accounts and change your password. They can use SMS to starts communicates with your contacts.
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Here are the 12 Ways to Secure your Smartphone from hackers.
1. Update your Apps and OS (Operating System).
There are lots of bugs and issues related to your smartphone software which are found by users. These bugs and issues are fixed by Updates. So, it is very necessary to update your smartphone apps and OS to secure your smartphone from the hacker.
Updates of apps and OS also helps your smartphone to run apps and OS more faster.
2. Avoid Public Wi-Fi.
There are lots of risks involved while using public Wi-Fi. Anyone can snoof your online activities on Public Wi-Fi. There are lots of free Snoofing tools available on the internet. Anyone can use these tools and snoof your credit card, login details, and your activity. So, Always use your personal network for your online transactions to secure your smartphone from hackers.
If you have doubt with any public network, Don’t connect to that network. Use your personal network like mobile data.
If you want to use public wifi. Then, you can use VPN (Virtual Private Network) tools which makes public network into a private network for you. It uses tunneling protocols and encrypts your data while browsing.
Some of the popular VPN apps are:
You can use OperaMini with free VPN which is a free web browser with inbuilt VPN. You have to turn on the VPN by go to Settings and enable the VPN.
3. Use Lock Screen and App Locks.
Nowadays every smartphone has a lock screen feature. You can use Pattern, Pin, and Password for your Android and Passcode for your iOS devices. You can also use fingerprint and face lock feature which is available in all 2019 smartphones to increase the level of security in your smartphone. You can also lock your apps and secure your smartphone from hackers. If your smartphone does not has app lock by default. Then you can download app lock from play store.
Some of the Popular app locks are:-
4. Use Strong Passwords.
Maximum peoples are lazy and forgot to use a strong password to secure your smartphone from hackers. They use passwords like 12345678, name123, name with dob and qwerty. These are very less secured password and anyone can guess and login inside your smartphone. So, it is very necessary to lock your phone with a strong password, pattern or passcode.
You create your strong password or You can use these following websites to generate strong passwords:-
5. Use Two-Factor Authentication (Two-Step Verification).
Two-Factor authentication is a two-step process of verifying your identity while login. In this process at first, you have to log in with your username and password and then a second screen appears with two-step authentication. The two-factor authentication code sends to your smartphone via SMS that you have to enter in the second screen. If anyone has guessed your password successfully, they cannot log in into your account because they required two-factor authentication code to login in your account.
You can use Two-Factor Authentication in your google account, social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Two-Factor authentication helps you a lot to secure your smartphone from hackers.
How to setup Two-Factor Authentication in your google account?
- After log in to your Google account go to https://myaccount.google.com/.
- go to Security › 2-Step verification.
- Click Get Started.
- Enter your Google account password.
- Enter your phone number in which you want to use 2-Step verification and use text message or phone call to get the code and verify your phone number.
Note: You can also use your phone to login your Google account. You can find this at Security › Use your phone to sign-in.
How to setup Two-Factor Authentication in your social media accounts.
You can find Two-Factor authentication settings at Settings › Accounts› Two-Step Verification.
You can find Two-Factor authentication settings after login into the Facebook app then at Settings › Security and Login › Two-Factor Authentication.
You can find Two-Factor Authentication settings after login into the Instagram app then at Settings › Security › Two-Factor Authentication.
You can find Two-Factor authentication settings after login into the Instagram app at Settings and Privacy › Accounts › Security › Login Verification.
6. Backup your mobile data.
Having a backup is very important for your useful data inside your smartphone. Both Android and iOS smartphones provide inbuilt backup options. Backup your data regularly will help you to save your time and headache if you lost or crash your phone or you change your smartphone.
You can backup your call log, contacts, text messages, photos, videos and the things inside your smartphone. You can backup your data in iCloud in apple devices and Google Drive, Mi Cloud, Samsung Cloud, oppo cloud, etc in Android devices.
You can find the backup option in your smartphone by default in your settings. Backup your data will helps you to secure your smartphone from hackers.
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7. Manage App Permissions.
Android apps ask you some permissions which are required to run the applications. but, Some apps ask you for the permissions which they don’t need to run the app. These permissions can be your contacts and locations details. Simply, use your common sense mind to identify the app permissions. Suppose an app that you use for sharing your files to other phones and it ask permission for your location and contacts details and you know that this app is only for file sharing then, why they need location and contact details? So, Don’t give unnecessary permission to any app. They can sync your data and store in their database.
How to manage these app permissions settings?
- It’s so simple. Go to Settings › Apps.
- Select an app in which you want to check the app permissions.
- select App Permissions.
8. Don’t Root or Jailbreak your smartphone.
If you are a normal user, Then there is no necessary need to root or jailbreak your smartphone.
Rooting or Jailbreaking your smartphone will unlock your phone features which are not provided with the normal smartphone. But, It’s has a lot of risk for your smartphone that after rooting, if you delete some internal android files which are important for your smartphone then, Your smartphone will get corrupted.
After rooting your phone you will lose the updates and security patches updates, which are very necessary for your smartphone. So, Don’t Root or Jailbreak your smartphone.
9. Know where your app installed from
Apps are a very important part of your smartphone. Don’t just download and install an app from anywhere on the internet. Always use Google Play Store to download and install apps in Android and use the Apple App Store to download and install apps on iOS devices. The apps on the Play Store and App Store are verified and secured to use.
If you install apps other than play store or App Store, may contain harmful malware which harms your phone. Hackers can use these apps to directly inject malware and virus into your phone. So, installing apps from play store or App Store to Secure your Smartphone from hackers.
10. Use Built-in device protections
Your smartphone has had much Built-in protection to protect your smartphone. If your smartphone gets stolen or broken then this built-in protection helps you a lot to Secure your Smartphone from hackers.
You can use Find my Phone, which is available in both Android and iOS devices. Find My Mobile helps you to track your phone easily and find your phone when lost. Find My phone also have a feature to ring your smartphone even your smartphone is in silent mode. You can also erase your all data from your smartphone with the help of Find My phone.
How to set up Find my Phone in Android?
- After login to your Google account go to https://myaccount.google.com/find-your-phone.
- Add your phone.
- If you want to use Find my phone just simply type “find my phone” on Google Search and you’ll find your phone current location.
You have to enable Find My Phone option in Android phone at Settings. If you don’t find this option in your settings then, you can enable this feature by downloading and installing Google Find My Device app from Google Play Store.
How to set up Find my iPhone in iOS?
- Go to Settings › [your name] › iCloud › Find My iPhone. (If you are using iOS 10.2 or earlier, then go to Settings › iCloud › Find My iPhone.
- Enter your apple id and enable Find My iPhone.
11. Beware of spam and phishing emails, SMS or WhatsApp forwards.
One of the most common or easier way to access your smartphone data by your email inbox, SMS and WhatsApp chat through phishing. Phishing is the common fraudulent done by hackers to obtain your sensitive information from your device. They create the exact copy of login page of apps to get your login information and send you the link through your mail inbox and SMS. They send promotional emails and message which contains suspicious links and attachment or they can give the app update through email or SMS or message.
Don’t go through these phishing emails. Check that who sending these emails to your inbox. Check the link that link is original or fake. Generally, Hackers use domain relates to the original website. for example, a hacker uses Facebooks.com but the original domain is Facebook.com. So, We aware of these links and safe from spamming and phishing.
12. Use an Antivirus app
You can use antivirus apps. The antivirus app contains almost all measures to protect your smartphone from hackers. Hackers mainly use malware to get your data and password details. To fight with this malware, Antivirus app is the best tool for you. Antivirus app enhances security to ensure app, pdf, image, videos and other files on your smartphone.
Some of the popular smartphone apps are:-
- Avast Antivirus – Mobile Security & Virus Cleaner
- Mobile Security: VPN Proxy & Anti Theft Safe WiFi
- Free antivirus and VPN – Panda Security
Conclusion
These are the 12 Ways through which you can Secure your Smartphone from hackers. You must aware of these things because your data in your smartphone is very important for you and you don’t want that anyone can see and use your data against you.
Please tell me guys that you like this article or not. If you have any problem related to smartphone security feel free to ask us via comment below or share your own views about your data security via comment.
