Three or four times a week, I get caught up in the bustle of people
shopping, going to the bank, meeting their friends, having business
meetings and emailing their friends and colleagues.
And that’s just on the train.
Take a step back and consider how mobile devices
have changed our lives … it’s mind-boggling. But this fantastic
technology has also introduced some pretty major potential problems too,
if we’re not careful when using them.
Mobile Threats on the Rise
Take viruses and malware, for example. How many times a week do the guys in our team at Get Safe Online hear the words “my phone (or tablet) is safe from viruses … not like my computer”? Wrong! According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report published
in April, statistics show an alarming increase in attacks on mobile
devices
... up by 58% in 2012 over the previous year. Just under a third of
these attacks were intended to steal data without the user’s knowledge,
with Android – which has a 75% share of the global market – still the
most targeted platform. Sophisticated protection apps are available from
all reputable internet security vendors, so download and use them!
These days, smartphones and tablets are used as much to go online at home
as they are when you’re out and about. Of the two, your home is the
safer place to go online in terms of protecting your privacy, as long as
you observe the rules about your WiFi network being secure and treating your device like a normal computer, that is. Using your mobile device in cafes, pubs and hotels
is a different matter, however. It’s tempting to do your banking or
shopping while you’re enjoying that well-deserved coffee, but is that hotspot really
secure? Who’s looking over your shoulder? And what do you do with your
device when you want to get a second latte? Leave it on the table and
switched on, with your email address, contact list and photos of your
kids there for all to see? I hope not.
Check for Phishing when Scanning QR Codes
What about QR codes –
those square artworks you see everywhere from window posters to
customer service feedback cards, decipherable only by a mobile scanning
app? You can’t even read the website address where the code is taking
you, so just a like a fake address in an email or a letter, they could
have been ‘tinkered’ with by fraudsters. Again, all it takes is a little
discretion on your part regarding which codes to scan, and which to
avoid.
Similarly, with the new generation of mobile services that make it so easy to transfer money
to other people, take precautions like choosing and using passcodes
carefully, keeping them secret and not storing them on your device.
Always double-check the phone number that you are sending money to, before clicking ‘confirm payment’.
Identity Theft
Then, of course, there’s the physical safety of
your mobile device itself – the theft or loss of which involves not
only having to shell out for another one, but invariably means that
someone else can access personal and financial information held on the
device. Only the other day, our site reported on a concerning increase
in thefts, citing the case of the restaurant owner
in London who actually had his mobile device with him at the table
while dining al fresco with a colleague, when a man walked past, casual
as you like, picked up his device and ran off to a waiting scooter …
never to be seen again. Equally common outside or inside pubs and
restaurants, it’s a growing trend.
Disposing of your old phone or
tablet demands equal vigilance. As with a computer, simply deleting
information often doesn’t mean that it’s wiped off the device, leaving you open to fraud or identity theft.
This week we reported on ‘recycled’ UK phones being bought by foreign
criminals with the intention of doing just that. Is your old smartphone
one of them?
Family Safety
But as both CEO of Get Safe Online and a family man, the aspect that concerns me most about mobile devices
is in the context of our children. Giving a child a phone so that they
can “always keep in touch” could be unwittingly giving them access to
inappropriate material and social networking
sites and chatrooms for which they’re too young, to say nothing of
running up massive bills for premium rate numbers and ‘free’ games. Of
course, you can educate your children from
an early age as well as introducing technical controls, but their
friends’ parents may not be so careful. For example, eight children in
ten know the password and PIN to their parents' mobile devices, according to a piece in the Daily Mail.
To most of us, our mobile phones have become our wallets, our diaries,
our address books, our photo albums ….our lives. So let’s guard them
with our lives, and keep safe when out and about.
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