How to secure your smartphone from hackers ?

How to secure your smartphone from hackers...

1. Use Passcodes Everywhere:

Whether you have an Android phone or an iPhone, you can prevent access to your device by adding a passcode or a lock pattern on Android. This simple security measure can save tour sensitive information This is especially important if you have a bunch of apps installed where personal data is stored like financial apps (Mint,bank apps, etc), note apps etc.The home screen passcode is important because a lot of the email apps (Mail on iPhone and Gmail on Android) don’t even have an option to passcode your email. Emails can
contain a lot of private information and since most people go to parties and leave their phones on tables and counters. Sp passcode is necessary.

2. Protect Your iCloud & Google
Account:
The second thing most is that if
someone can access into your
iCloud or Google account, they can gain access to a lot of data that you might be creating and editing from your smartphone. In these times, it’s
a necessary to enable 2-step
verification on both of these
accounts.Your Google account
basically logs you into all Google services from YouTube to Gmail to Google Play to Google Maps to Google Calendar to Picasa to Google
+, etc, etc, etc...

3. Avoid Jailbreaking or Rooting
Your Smartphone:

If you are jailbreak or root your
phone for fun and enjoyment, then good for you. But you have to avoid this because it can mess up your phone and cause you more grief than
happiness. Secondly, you won’t be able to update your phone with the latest updates to the OS since it’ll be in an unsupported mode.

4. Be Careful With the Apps You
Install:

This is especially important on
Android devices. Google recently
removed 50,000 apps that were
suspected containing viruses. There are a lot of apps that contain malware, viruses or other sneaky software to steal your data or damage your phone. The Apple app
store also has this problem.So,be careful about installing apps.

5. Use an App Instead of the
Browser:

If you’re doing banking on your
phone or stock trading or anything else that contain personal sensitive
information between your phone and the Internet, it’s best to use an official app for that site or company rather than opening using the
browser on your phone.For example, Chase, Bank of America and lots of other big financial institutions have
their own apps for iOS and Android.

6. Control What an App Can Access:

You’ve probably seen the following
message on your iPhone a hundred
times already:There are all types of
these “AppName Would Like to
Access Your Data” messages. Data
can be photos, location, contacts
etc. Don’t just click OK all the time.
If you click anything all the time, it’s
better to just choose Don’t Allow and
if you really can’t use the app later
on, you can manually go back in and
change it to allow access.

7. Keep Data Backed Up:

It’s not only a good idea to keep your
smartphone backed up in case if it
gets stolen and you have to remotely
wipe it clean. Apple users can
install the Find My iPhone app,
which will let you remotely lock a
phone and remotely wipe it if you
know it’s been stolen.If you don’t
have your data backed up, you’ll
lose it all if it’s stolen. If you back it
up locally or in the cloud, you’ll be
able to wipe your phone and get all
your data back on your new
phone.On Android, there is a built-in
backup tool, but it doesn’t backup
everything on your phone like the
iOS does.

8. Report Your Phone Stolen:

There has been a stolen phone
database created that is shared
between the major wireless carriers.
You can report your phone stolen and
that will prevent anyone from
connecting to the carrier and using
data or minutes. If they try to wipe it,
replace the SIM, etc, it still won’t
allow them to activate on any of the
carriers because of the serial
number.

9. Update the OS:

Just like you have to constantly
install Microsoft security updates for
your PC, it’s a good idea to install
the latest updates for your
smartphone. If there are no major
issues with the update like
degradation of battery life, etc, but if
nothing stands out, then update the
phone.In addition to updating the OS,
it’s also a good idea to update the
apps installed on your phone.

10. Wireless & Bluetooth:

When you’re not at home, it’s best to
try to disable the wireless and
bluetooth altogether and use your 3G
or 4G connection if you can. The
moment you connect to an untrusted
wireless network, you’re open to
hackers scanning for victims over
the network. A hacker try to connect
to your smartphone and steal data,
etc.If bluetooth is enabled and
discoverable, it gives hackers
another way to possibly see the data
being passed between the bluetooth
device and your phone.