Many are the users who wonder how to protect your mobile from hackers and robbery, two different concepts that are ultimately related. Our mobile has become our main communication tool, if not the only one in many people.
Because of this, we must try to make sure it does not fall into the wrong hands and to protect all the content that we have inside without incurring in a use that could endanger the security of the same and the operating system.
Applications from the Play Store always
On Android, unlike Apple's iOS ecosystem, we have at our disposal a large number of stores to install third-party applications, as well as repositories where we can find applications that, due to Play Store guidelines, they have no place in the Google store.
The Google Play Store has a series of controls that guarantee us that available applications are free of malware. Install applications from other stores, especially those where we find paid apps for free, It is a very high security risk, since they are usually applications modified with malware inside to steal our data.
APKMirror is one of the alternative stores to the Play Store where we will not find any type of malware in applications, as well as applications found in the GitHub repository (owned by Microsoft).
Protect your device with a lock
Although it may seem absurd, many are the people who, despite the different security measures that all smartphones offer us, do not use any of them at all. Fortunately, depending on the type of applications we use, some of them (not precisely bank applications) They force us to use a security method on our smartphone.
Either using facial recognition, through a pattern, a code or simply our fingerprint, we can prevent anyone from having access to the data on our phone. Google encrypts the content of all terminals when they use one of the security systems I have described above. In this way, if they try to brute force access our phone they will not be able to easily access our information.
If, on the other hand, the phone does not include any measure to protect access to its content, the content will not be encrypted with all that this implies. To change or add a locking system to our smartphone, we must access the Settings from our terminal and access the option Security.
Public chargers: no thanks
It is increasingly common to see how in shopping centers we find free recharging points for our smartphone. All of them show a panel where the cables come out but we don't see where they are connected. We cannot be sure that really are connected to a power adapter, so they are likely to be on a computer.
If so, and our team not protected by a code, from the computer they can be done with all the data stored on our phone, as the information inside is not encrypted.
By adding a blocking system, friends of others will have to use brute force (numerous access requests to bypass security) so they it will be practically impossible to access unless they have many hours ahead of them.
Anyway, it is not recommended to use them. One solution is to use a car charger or use an external battery, batteries that can save our lives (sometimes literally) from running out of battery.
Always up-to-date operating system
Many are the users who base their decision when buying a new smartphone on the price. ERROR. Smartphones have an average life of 3 or 4 years. Google releases monthly security updates to correct vulnerabilities that have been detected in Android and that can pose a risk to user safety.
Samsung is one of the few manufacturers that every month launches monthly security updates of its terminals, updates that when the terminal has been on the market for a while, become quarterly, but there they are, something that not the case with most smartphone manufacturers.
Samsung is not more expensive than other manufacturers
Samsung announced at the beginning of 2021, that all the terminals that it launches from this moment, will receive three Android updates, matching the Google Pixels. Samsung can be considered somewhat more expensive than the rest of the manufacturers, but it offers a support that we will not find in practically any other Android manufacturer.
Is it really worth paying 50 or 0 euros more for a Samsung in equal benefits? If you want your smartphone to be protected at all times against any current or future threat, it really is worth it, since in the long run, the terminal will last you longer, so it will take longer to renew it.
Always up-to-date apps
With applications, three-quarters of the same happens as with the operating system. Some applications, especially browsers, may incorporate security gaps that allow third parties to access our terminal, so it is always recommended install the latest update as soon as it is available.
Banks don't send emails
Although there is nothing 100% secure in computer matters, the security measures used by banks are very high and it has never been the case that a bank has been hacked.
Receiving emails from our bank inviting us to change our password is called Phishing, a technique used by friends of others inviting us to click on a link that shows a page very similar to our bank where We must enter our username and password.
If a bank thinks or is certain that it has been hacked, it will send a message to its customers inviting them to stop by his office to get new keys.
Not to be confused with reset password
When a platform believes that it has had a leak or that someone has tried to access your account, will invite us to reset our password through a link. In that link, we must enter the new password that we want to use, never the one we were using until now.
If the page invites us to enter our old password and the website does not show a padlock in front of the address shown in the browser, be wary.
Use an antivirus
Using an antivirus on Android allows us to add an extra layer of security to which Google Play Protect natively offers us, since it is in charge at all times of analyzing both the operation of the applications in search of malware and of analyzing all the links on which we click to avoid phishing links that we may receive through of text messages, emails or includes app notifications.
The problem with this type of application is that slows down the phone especially if it is a few years old. The antivirus They are aimed at users who install applications from any source, without worrying about their origin.
If you use your smartphone to view social networks, check your emails and you don't usually install any application that is interesting to you, no need to install an antivirus on Android.
We could say that Google Play Protect is the Windows Defender Windows 10, a protection system that protect our device at all times before the friends of the alien for the majority of users. If you do not like to live to the fullest and install applications and games left and right, put an antivirus in your life.
For these users, the best thing they can do if they don't want to install an antivirus is to install Android on a PC y test like this all the applications you want without putting your data and security at risk and avoiding having to restore the device over time.
Find your device
We always put ourselves in the worst case when we lose sight of our smartphone, however, this is not always the case, since it is likely that we have lost it in the car, between the cushions of our sofa in the last place we've been.
Having Google location services activated, the search giant allows us to quickly locate our smartphone through this linkas long as the phone has mobile data and is still on. If it has run out of battery, it will show us the last location of it.
This functionality allows us activate an audible alarm that will allow us to locate exactly where we have left the smartphone once we are in the location shown on the map.
Two factor authentication
Two-factor authentication allows us to have our passwords protected at all times and prevent third parties from accessing our accounts. This system, available on most platforms, sends us a text or email message with a code, a code that we must enter into the application to gain access.
Without this code, no one can have access to our accounts, so it is, today, the best tool to protect access to all our accounts, be it emails, social networks, gaming platforms ...
Don't use public Wi-Fi connections
The data circulating on public Wi-Fi networks is available to any malicious user connected to the same network. While it is true that it is a interesting claim not to consume data, we must avoid it as far as possible, especially if we want to access our bank application, our mail applications, social networks ...
If what we want is to use YouTube to watch videos there is no problem, as long as the bandwidth is sufficient. If you spend a lot of time surrounded by these types of connections and do not want to be aware of your safety, the best option is hire a VPN, since all the content of your device is encrypted until the servers of the service.
Use your smartwatch
Google's operating system for smartwatches, Wear OS, incorporates a function that will help us avoid leaving us forgetting our phone number anywhereWhether in the car, in a cafeteria, at a friend's house, that we can simply drop it while we are walking down the street or that someone intentionally steals it from us.
This function detects that we have moved away from our phone when the bluetooth connection begins to be weak and begins to make a sound so that we can locate it quickly. This feature is also available on Samsung smartwatches.
Make backup copies
Putting ourselves in the worst case, if we have lost sight of our phone and the chances of recovering it are minimal, we will always have at our disposal a backup of all content available on our smartphone, including all photos and videos.
To have a backup copy of all the content available on our smartphone, we just have to make use of our Google account, account that includes 15 GB of free space, more than enough space for most mortals including photographs now that Google Photos (will begin to be paid from mid-2021) and WhatsApp.
Both Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok do not store content on the device, so we do not need to make a backup, since all content will continue to be available through the application once we install the application.
Don't always use the same password
Using the same password for everything is of great help for friends of others, since once they have been able to know it that we use on any platform, you can try the same on the rest. Voucher, not easy to remember different passwords for each service.
For technology related problem, there is a solution. In this case, the solution for using password managers, or in the case of Android, use Google SmartLock, a platform that stores each and every one of the passwords for our web services and applications