Only a few years ago, cell phones were used primarily for writing SMSs and making calls. Contemporary smartphones, on the other hand, organize almost our entire life: we collect photos, access data for instant messengers, online banking services and e-mail. Under these circumstances an understandable question arises: how to properly protect the content of your smartphone?
Today smartphones are with us from dawn to dusk. That there is no exaggeration in this statement, is proved by recent research conducted by Deloitte Mobile Consumer Journey . We learn from them that over 50 percent. Poles reach for the phone within the first quarter of an hour after waking up, and another 48 percent he looks at them shortly before going to bed. So for many of us smartphones have become the main window to the world.
However, it should be borne in mind that as the importance of mobile devices increases, the frequency of attacks on them also increases. This is evidenced, for example, by the recent reports of McAfee, one of the largest antivirus software developers in the world that also deals with cyber security issues. Its specialists identified over 20 million threats in 2017, caused by, among others spreading malware that they may have encountered – as you might guess: usually unknowingly – mobile device users.
Virtual threats, however, have quite real consequences. It is estimated that the losses caused by attacks on users of portable electronic equipment in 2017 could amount to – at least – 600 billion dollars. And this is, as you can probably assume, just the beginning. It is influenced by the constantly growing popularity of e-shopping and electronic banking services – at least 34 percent use them today. smartphone owners. The expected increase in interest in the so-called Internet of Things (according to Gartner analysts, by 2050 there will be around 50 billion daily devices permanently connected to the network around the world). All this means that in the future we will have to take into account many other, today unknown, dangers.
Of course, smartphone and tablet manufacturers are aware of this. That is why more and more often they decide to develop various security solutions, both at the hardware and software level. This is where modern biometric systems come from (for example, iris scanner or ultrasonic fingerprint reader, which we will see today in Samsung’s flagship devices) or specialized encryption software to prevent intrusions and malware infections.
Modern cyber threats have also contributed to the rapid development of various cryptographic techniques and tools, as well as to undertaking intensive work on the so-called behavioral biometrics – a method that allows effective verification of a user’s identity based only on the way in which he operates his device. These types of safeguards establish the user’s identity by tracking all their characteristic behaviors – the speed at which they move the mouse cursor or write on the keyboard – while looking for any deviations from the adopted pattern.
No wonder that, given the weight and scale of modern cyber threats, the Samsung brand has developed its own mobile security platform Samsung Knox – pre-installed on all of its portable devices – which in Gartner tests received a rating of “strong” in 27 of 30 categories. But Knox also has a lot to say about the environmental safety of the certification granted by the US National Information Assurance Partnership, which assesses whether devices can be allowed to work with data processed in government institutions operating in the United States.
Responsibility for the security of mobile devices should be taken not only by their producers and developers of the software installed on them, but also their users themselves. It is known for a long time that it is the human factor – excessive trust, haste, ignorance or lack of caution – often turns out to be the source of the greatest threats. For this reason, it is worth mastering some basic security principles to avoid, for example, losing money or identity theft. We write about them below.
First of all: let’s make sure that our device comes from a reliable source (preferably from official, national distribution) and install only legal applications created and distributed by reliable, trusted software producers.
Secondly: remember to keep your device updated and the software installed on it, downloading the latest, official “patches” and security patches. For this purpose, in the settings of your phone we can run the function of automatically downloading updates.
Third: we use difficult, strong passwords, consisting not only of numbers and letters, but also of other alphanumeric (special) characters. We should remember not to use the same password everywhere, because if a thief manages to intercept it, he will immediately gain access to all our accounts and services that we use on a daily basis. If it is possible, use a two-step authentication procedure, consisting e.g. of an unlocking pattern, password, PIN or biometric data (fingerprint, iris image).
Fourth: let’s take care of sensitive data, using proven, secure encryption software (e.g. the My Safe application based on the Samsung Knox security platform, or the Samsung Pass service storing our passwords using advanced cryptographic methods) and supporting the already mentioned biometric tools.
Fifthly: let’s avoid using unknown (especially public and easily accessible to everyone) Wi-Fi networks, remembering that the network traffic taking place in them can be monitored and the passwords transmitted through them are intercepted. We also take care of the protection of peripheral devices with permanent internet access, to which we connect our mobile devices, because they can sometimes become the target of cyber attacks.
Sixth: always and in all situations, use common sense. Let us be cautious and healthy skepticism do not open messages, attachments and links received from unknown senders and from unverified sources. Let’s not respond to suspicious correspondence that we did not expect to receive. We also check each time whether the pages we visit and the services we use are encrypted and have appropriate security certificates.
