The easily forgotten in Cyber Security – Mobile Phones

Everyone knows the importance of protecting their computer login, we are drilled on it daily.
The amount of confidential data that the average person’s computer holds, and the company resources it has access to is well worth protecting.
But did you know that in your pocket you are carrying a gold mine of confidential information and a potential security risk?
That’s right, we are talking about mobile phones.

Mobile phones have become an extension of us over the last 15 years. The power they have to enhance our life and work productivity is incredible.
On our phones we have access to photos, work emails, business contacts, company resources such as Office 365 & Google Workspace, passwords and more.
Criminals know this, which is why phones are a huge target. Stealing a mobile phone is well up on the list of top priority targets.

Unlike a computer which generally we are very protective of, phones are often connected to unsecured public Wi-Fi, left in public spaces, used by others and easily lost/stolen. Unfortunately, we can be very blasé with how we protect our phones.

What should you do to better protect yourself?

Here are some simple tips to keep you and your company safe.

• Setup your phone to use a PIN / Fingerprint or Facial recognition to unlock (preferably a combination of both) if possible.
• Make your PIN difficult to guess. Don’t use things such as your postcode, date of birth or bank PIN number.
• Make sure you have a feature such as ‘Find my iPhone’ or ‘Find my mobile’ switched on.
• This is really important as if it all goes pear shaped and you lose your phone you can initiate a remote erase.
• If saving passwords, make sure you have a PIN or protection to access.
• Enable Multi Factor Authentication on any app that has access to sensitive information.
• Never connect to public Wi-Fi. If you do need to use public Wi-Fi make sure you are utilising VPN (Virtual Private Network) to increase your security
• Update your phone to the latest software version where possible.
• Update your apps to the latest versions.
• Run Anti-Virus (if supported).
• Store your phone in a secure location at all times.
• Only install apps from a trusted source – read reviews first and check what information the app has access to.
• Limit what your apps have access to. If they don’t need access to things such as your photos, microphone/camera or contacts then switch that off.
• Limit who has access to use your phone.