You have to admit, having access to any kind of information you want, all of your email services, and the potential to hook up to any social media that you’re on makes life pretty convenient. However, there is a downside that comes with that if you aren’t at least moderately aware of the security risks that come along with this situation.
So if you don’t want to end up on the wrong end of a scam, hack, or phishing expedition, then there are steps that you can take to protect yourself including securing your emails, having a lock on your phone, using different passwords everywhere, being careful about public wi-fi, and keeping all of your apps and operating systems absolutely up to date.
Protect Your Email
When you take steps to protect your email by using encryption technology, you’re not only protecting yourself, you’re also protecting other people that you’ve connected to via email as well. Once hackers start gobbling up your info, they can start tracing through your online contact list as well as through your emails and get information as varied as personal material, even by finding text about medical health issues that can be used against people.
Lock Your Phone
One of the simplest ways to avoid trouble in terms of mobile security is by making sure you have a phone lock that works. There are a number of lock screens that are available through different operating systems and through different providers, and just having an automated screen-stop program running can keep away people who want to poke through your data, even if it seems harmless at the time (like posting silly messages on social media platforms as someone else).
Use Different Passwords
Even if it sounds extreme, you should always use a different password for every account that you have, especially for things like email and social media sites. If one account gets hacked, you’ll find that anyone with your info will potentially try logging in to all of your other sites as well.
Be Careful About Public Wi-Fi
Public wi-fi is great because you get good data speeds up and down for your processing, but there’s also a bit of a danger as well, because since there’s no password and no encryption on these free data waves, other people can potentially use that connectivity to either see what services you’re using, or potentially even get into the guts of your phone itself.
Keep Your Apps and Operating Systems Updated
Hackers will find a way in. And developers will find ways to patch their programs and apps in order to keep hackers out. But, if you don’t updates all the time, and that means checking nearly every day, then there’s the potential for hackers to wiggle their way into your private data by taking advantage of the loopholes inherent in various types of programming code.