Guard Against Mobile Malware: A Step-by-Step Guide for Enhanced Smartphone Security

Smartphones have become a part of everyone’s life, and today most people are entirely dependent on them for most of their tasks like shopping, banking, paying rents, bills, entertainment, and a lot more.

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Your phone contains numerous personal data and information that even your best friend or spouse does not know about. Since smartphones accumulate numerous sensitive details, they are one of the primary targets for cyberattacks. On top of that, the user’s ignorance of security and privacy practices makes it, even more, easier for intruders.

In this post, we will list out the top ways to safeguard your smartphone from hackers.

Can Someone Hack my Phone by Texting me?

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Why smartphones are becoming victims of hacking?

Modern smartphones come with many advanced features to safeguard your sensitive data from the prying eyes of hackers. The features such as fingerprint scanner, retinal scanner, face recognition, and more are now not limited to only luxury phones. These ensure that the security is maintained and privacy is intact for your phone. However, even after such assurances, we regularly came across the news of security breaches and malware attacks on Android and even iPhone devices.

One of the reasons for it is that with advancements in security technologies, cybercriminals are also making themselves up to date and finding new ways to infiltrate modern gadgets, including IoT devices, smart TVs, computers, smartphones, and others.

Another reason behind such security violations is the applications we use on our phones. Many apps, especially on Android, are data-hungry, even the legitimate ones like Google’s Apps . They track and consume so much private information on our phones and use it for their benefits, such as targeting the ads.

Another reason is loosely designed hardware. Although the modern phone does have many features, as already mentioned, like a retinal scanner and all, it still can be easily hacked by professional hackers. It is because privacy and security are never the main objectives of most smartphone manufacturers. Primarily, the mobile companies look to provide more and more usability on their phones like a good camera, more storage, higher RAM, more incredible processing speed, etc., rather than security. There are very few privacy-focused smartphones in the market.

With the ever-rising cybercrimes, it has become essential to take measures to secure your phone from hackers. Though most of such security measures are easy to apply and practice, smartphone users usually ignore them.

How to secure your phone from hackers?

Follow Basic Preventive Measures

Even after knowing the consequences of a hacking attempt on their device, many smartphone users don’t even follow the basic privacy and security practices. Here are those:

• Never leave your smartphone unattended or unlocked. Many phone users tend to leave their phone unattended without locking it. Although it is probably safe to do this when you are in your home, but when you are in your office or any other public place like cafes, cinemas, etc., this habit can lead you to trouble. One of your colleagues might notice your pattern of leaving the phone unlocked and can take advantage of it with bad intentions.
• Never connect to the unsecured public Wi–Fi. Smartphone users have the tendency to connect to any free public Wi-Fi wherever they get an opportunity, like in cafes, coffee houses, malls, or restaurants. This tendency might land you in trouble as information or data shared through such public networks can be easily interpreted, stolen, or modified. Skillful hackers can access your device through such open networks.
• Disable autocomplete feature. The autocomplete feature of smartphones lets you complete sentences while you are chatting. This feature saves the most common words you use on your phone, including user IDs, passwords, and others. So, if you don’t want your phone to store such information, it is advised to disable the autocomplete feature.
• Disable lock screen notification. Lock screen notifications can give away your sensitive details to everyone who sees your phone. If you spend the most time around unknown people, it is advised to disable the lock screen notifications.
• Keep Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned OFF when not in use. Hackers might take undue advantage of these wireless communications to infiltrate your device.
• Be cautious while saving the banking details on the phone. If you are storing such information on your phone, ensure to protect them with a password-protected security application.
• Remember to delete your browsing data such as history, cookies, and others regularly. This will reduce the chances of data loss, even in the case of a hacking attempt.

Keep your Device and Apps Updated

The best way to prevent any malicious attacks on your device is by regularly keeping it updated with the latest version as soon as it is available. By updating the smartphone, you are not only introducing new features but also including the latest security patches and fixed loopholes to the gadget. The latest security patches will ensure that the new malicious apps or codes are under the scanner and won’t hide in the phone.

Other than that, it is also essential to keep the installed applications updated. It is a bad practice to keep delaying the application updates. The outdated applications can contain loopholes, security vulnerabilities, and bugs. All such issues can make them gateway for hackers to access the smartphone. So, it is advised to check for updates to the applications regularly. Most people never update the app that they rarely use. However, you should update infrequently used apps, too, for a total safeguard.

Never trust Third-Party sources for Apps

For getting applications to fulfill your needs, always download and install them from the official sources, i.e., Google Play Store for Android and Apple App Store for iOS. In anticipation of getting paid apps for free or at a lesser price, many users navigate to untrustworthy sources. Most applications available on such platforms are infected with malicious hacking codes. If you install such apps on your phone, you might unintentionally willingly allow infiltrators to attack your device.

Be alert while installing Apps

While installation or during the first run, almost every application would ask for user permissions for using phone resources like contacts, camera, microphone, and many more. You must be very cautious while granting permissions to the apps, and before allowing them, thoroughly verify why the app requires that particular permission. Since many users do not pay attention during this step, many app developers take advantage of it and take unessential permissions.

Check your Installed Applications

It is advised to check the installed applications on your phone regularly. Many applications might seems harmless when you install them for the first time. However, with later updates, the whole intention of the app might change, and users might not notice it. Some applications can even become malicious because of no regular updates. You might also have a few applications that you no longer use. So, you must get rid of those to free up some space and reduce the chances of malware attacks.

Keep installed a robust Security Application

Even after following all the above preventive measures, the risk of hacking is still there because human error is inevitable. So, installing a robust security program is a must on smartphones. One of the best security app for Android is Malwarefox.

MalwareFox is a lightweight antimalware for Android devices. It works on the heuristic approach to detecting malicious apps from your phone. This app prevents malware, spyware, and phishing attacks . It ensures that your personal data stays private. Unlike typical security app, MalwareFox is lightweight and can scan your system 350% faster. It does not affect the performance of your devices, which means you can continue using other apps while scanning finishes.

Key Features of MalwareFox Antimalware:

• Quick Scan – Quickly scans the apps and files on your phone for possible infection.
• Real-Time Protection – Blocks malware from entering your phone.
• Enhanced Protection – Stops spyware , keyloggers , and Potentially Unwanted Apps (PUA).

Summing Up

Today nobody is immune to a hacking attempt. So, if you think that hacking or data breach only happens with celebrities or MNCs, you are probably still in the 1990s or 2010s. The tips listed in this post would help you secure your phone from malicious intruders and keep your data safe.

Can someone hack my phone by texting?

Technically, phones cannot be hacked by just texting. However, user action after receiving a malicious text might result in hacking. For example, if the text contains a link to the installation of the hacking app, then you might unintentionally install it by clicking the link.

How hacking happens?

Hacking happens when users unintentionally allow access to their devices to the hackers or intruders use specially designed software to crack the user’s device.

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