Your mobile device contains a whole lot of personal information, quite possibly more than your laptop or home PC. It’s therefore of paramount importance that you keep that information stored safely. When protecting your mobile device you should of course start with the basics, for example keeping it in a safe place, only giving your number to people or organizations you can trust and choosing a very strong password to unlock the smartphone. You should also be checking for the latest mobile security measures when browsing and of course make sure you’re protected against malware and viruses, however there are a few more things that you should be thinking about.
You should use wifi hotspots for limited types of online activity, never for example do your online banking on an unsecured network. Also, when logging into sites with anything that requires a password, make sure that the URL is a secure one, i.e it is https, rather than http as this means there is extra protection in place for you. Only ever respond to texts, voicemails and emails with personal information if you are 100% sure of who the sender is. Most messages from unknown senders that request ‘immediate action’ are not to be trusted. Go as far as to block phone numbers you do not trust, report emails and text messages as spam or potentially malicious.
There are other small things that you can do to help protect your phone, and setting the screen lock for less than 15 minutes is a good idea....saves on battery power too! There are more extreme measures you could go to such as installing apps that can delete everything on your device should it be lost or stolen and many people now turn off all optional network connections when they are not required.
Remember that your phone contains so much information, for many people, especially those that use their smartphone more than a laptop or PC, it contains literally all the information a criminal would need to commit many fraudulent offences. From the basics such as your name, date of birth, address, phone number, email address, right through to very personal information, such as everything in your inbox, your photos, messages from friends, passwords and social media profiles...it’s all there, and it is well worth spending time to protect.
