How to protect your smartphone from hacker attacks: 5 useful tips

Succeed in protect your smartphone Since cyber attacks, Android or iPhone has become an essential “mission” given that our entire existence now passes through our mobile phone: health data, banking information, digital documents (such as driving license and health card), personal memories and much more. If attackers were to access your smartphone, it would be a real disaster! To prevent such a nefarious event from becoming reality, it is important to take the right precautions, including the adoption of a secure device unlocking system, downloading apps only from official sources, the “reasoned” granting of the permissions granted to these latest and connecting to secure Wi-Fi networks, just to name a few. Let’s analyze these and others best practices in detail.

Activate biometric unlocking of your device

Let’s start from the “basics”: lo unlocking the device. Since biometric sensors are now increasingly widespread, even on medium-low range smartphones, we suggest you make full use of them by activating unlocking via fingerprint or the one via 3D facial recognition (if your smartphone supports unlocking via 2D recognition, we invite you not to activate it, as the device could be unlocked with a photo of you).

Also, set a PIN or one unlock password sufficiently complex, to be used if your device does not support biometric unlocking (or to be used when the mobile phone is turned on again, as the first unlock).

Install apps only from official sources

In addition to protecting access to the phone it is important that all installed apps come from trusted sourcesthus avoiding malware hidden in applications of dubious origin. For example, the Play Store of your Android smartphone andApp Store of your iPhone subject the apps to strict security checks, which means that by installing applications from these sources, you will greatly reduce the risk of downloading malicious software.

Grant apps only the necessary permissions

Installed apps may require various permissions, such as camera or microphone access, to function properly. However, some may ask for more than is necessary. A careful management of permissions it is therefore a key step to prevent malicious apps from gaining access to sensitive data. Periodically, you should check application permissions and reduce unnecessary ones, further protecting your device from potential vulnerabilities.

Install software updates promptly

Speaking of apps, it is important that these are regularly updated. Oh yeah, software updates should not be overlookedbut they must be installed promptly, as they may contain security patches that correct flaws identified after the distribution of the software. This not only applies to apps, but also to the operating system of your mobile phone itself, which should be regularly updated to avoid problems. Not updating means leaving your device exposed to these flaws, making it an easy target for possible attacks, such as those based on the so-called zero-day exploiti.e. those vulnerabilities that are not yet known to the companies that develop the software.

Be careful about your use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Another aspect you should pay attention to concerns your use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Our advice is to avoid using public Wi-Fi networkssuch as those often found in bars, hotels or airports, given that they could easily be used by cyber criminals to “sniff” sensitive data present on devices that they manage to intercept on the latter. If you really need to connect to one of these unsecured Wi-Fi networks, use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to encrypt your communications. Beyond that, Turn off Bluetooth when not in useso as to prevent unauthorized connections to your device.