There are multiple ways your phone could be attacked by cybercriminals for several reasons. In the past, people used smartphones for social networking and entertainment purposes, but now mobile phones are a part of life, and we are more dependent on these devices than ever. We use smartphones to control our smart home devices and security system, and use them as our personal assistants.
So, in today’s times, it is extremely important to keep our phones secure because if our phones get hacked, a lot of things could get risked. Some of these things include your entire smart home, your phone’s data, bank account information, credentials critical information, access to digital wallets with our digital currencies and much more.
Internet and network security are more important than ever because not only do we have our data at risk but also a lot of money due to online transactions and wallets. Besides, identity theft has been growing more and more each day.
Ways Your Phone Could Be Infected
We are super indifferent towards our phone’s security and never really see it as a priority. Well, your phone could be infected and hacked in several ways, so here are the few ways which could make our phones vulnerable to cybercrimes.
- Downloading apps from untrusted sources.
- Opening links from emails, messages, and ads that are suspicious.
- Responding to phishing frauds on email, phone, messages, or any other source.
- Not regularly updating your phone’s software and delaying it.
- Connecting to open WiFi networks in the public.
Ways to Secure Your Phone
You can secure your phone from such attacks in several ways.
1. Make Your Network Private
Well, first of all, if your internet network is not private and secure, even if you have kept your phone secure, you might still be vulnerable to risks because of some other unsafe device on your network. Keeping your network private as well as secure is a prerequisite for internet security.
To have full internet security, you need a good internet service provider that prioritizes your network and keeps it super-secure. In this case, we recommend everyone to use Xfinity internet along with the xFi gateway device because the xFi gateway provides maximum internet security with its Advanced Security dashboard.
The Advanced Security adapts to your system to provides you with a personalized security experience and understand your patterns. This adds an extra layer of security for your entire network and alerts you whenever something unusual happens on any of your devices.
The xFi Gateway synchronizes perfectly well with your Xfinity Home Security and since the WiFi is super-private, it keeps your smart home super-secure.. It even provides your guest hotspots for visitors. So, if you need to make your network well-protected, xFi gateway can be your ultimate solution.
2. Use Two-Factor Authentication
Another thing that you must have on all your accounts and phone is two-factor authentication because even if for some reason one of your account’s credentials are out, you will still get a notification to approve the login, which will also kind of alert you to secure your device and all your accounts. This should especially be done on your digital wallets and the Gmail account that you have on your digital accounts as the primary email.
So, if you want to add a layer of security especially to save your IDs from being hacked, it is necessary to have two-factor authentication.
3. Have Different Credentials for Different Accounts
One more thing that you should definitely consider as a prerequisite for phone security is to not have the same credentials for all your accounts and also not have all your accounts linked. While it may seem easy and convenient to have all accounts linked, who would want to remember all the passwords and IDs? Well, it is not safe at all.
So, instead of linking all your accounts and having the same IDs and passwords, try having entirely different emails and passwords for all your accounts, and make sure that the credentials, especially the passwords are super-complex.
4. Avoid Public WiFi Networks at All Costs
Another thing is to always be careful with public WiFi networks. While it may seem important to connect to an internet network at the moment, let us tell you that public WiFi networks are the biggest hub for cybercriminals.
Hackers look for phones connected to open WiFi networks and that is where they hack into your phone. As we discussed on the network security pointer, maintaining the security of your entire network is important, because if one device is infected, it could affect all other devices too. So, when the next time you have to update on Instagram from the café, wait until you get home or get a safer connection.
5. Only Download Apps or Files from Trusted Sources
Often times there are wallet apps on the web that are exact replicas of the original app. These apps are there to steal your data and credentials and if it is a digital wallet, it might steal your digital currency.
So, whenever you download an app, make sure that you are downloading it from a trusted source. There are minor changes in such apps that are difficult to pinpoint or read but if you take a close look and pay attention to detail before downloading, you could avoid such suspicious apps.
6. Keep Safe Search On
Well, similar to suspicious apps, if you want to avoid accessing suspicious websites, we suggest you keep the Safe Search on at all times. The option for keeping the Safe Search on comes with the security provided by your ISP, which is not only helpful for your phone but also your children’s phones because they might not be as aware as you might be.
So, always try to keep the Safe Search, not only on your own but also on your children’s devices.
Final Thoughts
Well, internet security on your phone is essential in all kinds of aspects because of the increasing number of cybercrimes every day. We hope this information was helpful for you and that you will follow these tips to make your phone secure.
2022-10-12 15:13:03