The fact that mobile users now outnumber PC users coupled with many businesses adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies has given cyber criminals an extra incentive to go after smartphones. The rise of spyware on smartphones is faster has made it dangerous for people to do their work on their phones without using an anti-malware and following some safety precautions, such as:

Setting a Password

You would be surprised how many people choose not to set a password for their phone, on the reasoning that they’re always carrying the phone anyway, so there’s no risk of someone gaining access to their personal info. However, they fail to understand that the minor inconvenience of typing a password every time they want to wake their phones up is not worth the trouble of getting their identity stolen and their business’ security compromised when (not if) they lose their phone through some accident. A password will go a long way in protecting critical business information on your smartphone, especially with newer smartphones that will wipe out and reset the phone to factory settings in the event of brute force attacks.

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Install Security Software

As proof that smartphone security is a big issue, formerly PC-only security companies have started developing security apps for smartphones. These companies include popular names like Norton and AVG. Like their PC counterparts, there are free suites available and premium ones, so you don’t even need to spend money to get protection (although you need to spend a little bit in order to get the best protection possible.)

Enable Remote Tracking and Wiping Features

If you have one of the new smartphones that have these features, enable remote tracking and wiping. The former will allow you to track your phone if it is ever lost or stolen, while the latter will allow you to remotely wipe all of the data and prevent it from falling into other people’s hands.

Don’t Root or Jailbreak Your Phone

It’s nice to have full control over your device, but if you’re using your smartphone for your business, you should avoid bypassing the manufacturer’s restrictions. Granted that it’s possible these restrictions are designed to tie you into the manufacturer’s approved apps and usage, but regardless of whether that’s true or not, it does come with the benefit of preventing untrusted apps from working, including locking certain potentially dangerous capabilities out of an app’s reach.

If you really want to experiment with roots and jailbreaks, you should get another smartphone and use that for your personal experimentation. Majority of the extra capabilities gained by freeing your smartphone from the manufacturer’s security features don’t really provide many benefits from a business standpoint, certainly not enough to warrant the risk of getting smartphone spywares.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 at 7:02 am and is filed under Mobile Sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.