Let me tell you an interesting story about an annual Telecom Fiji/Vodafone/Fiji Directories management workshop back in the late 1990s at a hotel in Suva.
I did a presentation on the internet growth in Fiji, in particular plans for wireless broadband Internet and the managing director of Vodafone Fiji at the time – Aslam Khan — presented their future growth plans.
He projected a total market size of smartphone evolution in Fiji 20,000 customers, mainly corporate, who could afford a mobile phone (remember those brick phones?) and the high calling charges at the time.
A few months later Vodafone’s chief engineer — Alusio Vosailagi — an engineering uni colleague from QUT approached me to test drive the Nokia 9000 with Vodafone’s new data module connected to the internet.
I was entranced; this is the future I thought to myself! As we all know, prepaid mobile services was introduced a few months later and Mr Khan’s predictions went out the window!
An interesting article I read recently in ZDNet.com by Danny Palmer (whom I paraphrase below in places) resonated in how mobile phone technology has changed things in the last 20 years, especially if you were involved in this evolution as I was.
Your smartphone nowadays contains your passwords, private messages, bank details and more.
Your smartphone is the key to not just your online life, but increasingly, almost every aspect of your everyday life.
You use it for communicating with friends and family, taking photos, sharing posts on social media, browsing the web, accessing your bank account, online shopping, streaming and much more.
That’s great, but it also means that your smartphone holds vast amounts of information about you — your private conversations, your passwords, your bank details, even your browsing history.
And the security risks which potentially threaten your smartphone and accounts by criminals isn’t just limited to hackers; if your smartphone is lost or stolen, whoever ends up with it could easily take advantage of your information for their own gain.
Here are five simple tips for keeping your smartphone secure – whether it’s straight out of the box, or a phone you’ve used for years. Apply software updates and security patches
This one should be easy: when you buy a new smartphone, whether that’s an Android smartphone or an Apple iPhone, one of the very first things you should do when setting it up is download the latest update for the operating system.
Among the quality of life improvements, these software updates fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities which have been found in the operating system – so applying the updates is the best way to prevent cyber criminals from exploiting known security issues.
In many cases, applying the update is easy, because the phone will issue you with a notification that it’s ready to install.
You should also keep your smartphone apps up to date with the latest security updates because, as with the phone itself, using the latest version of the app can go a long way to keeping that application, the account tied to it and your device secure from unwanted issues.
Secure your phone with a password, PIN code or biometric security features
You use a password to keep your email account secure and you use a PIN or a password to keep your online banking information secure.
So, when it comes to using a password or another method of identity verification to secure our smartphones, it should be second nature. But many of us still don’t use even the most basic protection to help keep our smartphones, and the data they contain, safe.
Sure, it’s convenient to pick up your phone and start using it immediately without having to enter a password or enter a PIN,
but that also means that anyone else who ends up with your phone in their hands can see what’s on your phone too.
If your phone is stolen from you and your phone isn’t locked with a verification method, then not only have you lost your phone, it’s likely you’ve lost personal data from your accounts too, as criminals look to profit any way they can from stolen devices.
Use multi-factor authentication wherever you can
While passwords are useful for keeping your accounts secure using one is better than not using one after all passwords are one of the most sought-after pieces of information by cyber criminals.
With someone’s account password, attackers can use the account as though they were the actual user so they can send messages to your friends and comb through your social media profiles, documents and photos for sensitive personal data, including your bank details, if they’re saved in apps.
If your password is considered weak, it’s possible that hackers could simply guess it, or use a brute force attack to crack the password. Even if your password is strong, there’s the possibility it could get leaked via a phishing attack – either one targeting you specifically, or the company running the account.
That’s why you should secure the accounts you use on your smartphone with multi-factor authentication (MFA), so if somehow your password gets phished, it isn’t possible for the attacker to directly access your account, because you’ll get an alert asking if it was you who accessed it.
If it wasn’t you, login and change your password immediately – and be sure to force a logout of any other active sessions, which you can do from your browser.
But while MFA provides an excellent added layer of defence for your smartphone and accounts, it’s worth remembering that it still isn’t completely infallible.
Only download applications and updates from trusted sources
No matter what sort of smartphone you own, you’ll likely want to download some applications – social media, fitness trackers and much more.
If you own an iPhone, the best place to download apps is the Apple App Store, while if you own an Android phone; it’s the Google Play Store.
While many apps are free, others you need to pay for or subscribe to. Some people might be tempted to see if it’s possible to download them for free from elsewhere, by doing a quick search online for a free version of the app in question.
This is not a good idea: any “free” versions of these applications won’t come from the official store, but a third-party site, which could put you at risk of a security breach.
Either way, downloading applications from untrusted, risky sources could leave you vulnerable to hackers.
Be careful about of what wireless (WiFi) networks you connect to — and consider a VPN
While many free wireless hotspots are legitimate, they’re not devoid of privacy risks. The nature of public Wi-Fi networks means they’re open for anybody to use and data being transferred isn’t as secure as it would be on your home or corporate network.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with connecting to public Wi-Fi, but it’s worth being mindful of the risks when you do. For example, how do you know it’s a legitimate wireless network? If you’re in a coffee shop, airport or another public space offering free Wi-Fi, it’s likely the connection details will be on display somewhere, giving you the name of the legitimate network to connect to. Think whether you really need to log onto your bank account at this time — perhaps you could wait until you get home?
As another great commentator observed: “You get old and you realise there are no answers, just stories.” As always God bless and stay safe in both digital and physical worlds.
