The importance of the smart phone is increasing day after day, as it has become a repository of all our secrets and data, so hacking it is like breaking into your home and accessing your private property, so you must follow the following steps presented by the American Digitaltrends site to protect your phone from hacking and save your data, to ensure your safety and the privacy of your information.
Regularly updating the operating system and applications
Software companies constantly update programs and operating systems, not only for their development, but many software updates contain bug fixes and security improvements that help protect your phone and data from hacking, and when an update is announced for your smartphone's operating system or for any of the applications you use, Install it without delay.
Avoid using Wi-Fi networks in public places
Free public Wi-Fi in malls, cafes, or airports is a suitable trick for various forms of hacks, try using private internet packages better, and turn off Wi-Fi on your phone completely when you are in a public place.
Close the phone with a password
Always use a 4 or 6-digit passcode to protect your phone and your data in case it is lost, so no one can open it and access your private things such as e-mail, contacts, photos, and banking information. A fingerprint scanner and unlocking the phone with facial recognition is an easy and fast alternative to numbers and words.
Use strong passwords
Use strong passwords only, as hackers cannot easily penetrate them, and they must contain a mixture of letters, numbers, upper and lower case letters and symbols, and avoid creating the password with personal data such as your birthday and name, and using the same password for more than one account or entity.
Change your passwords every six months to a year, or as soon as you hear about a data breach of any program you use, and do not answer your security questions honestly, and change your answers in the settings, which makes it difficult to hack your phone based on public information about you online.
Beware of phishing emails
One of the easiest ways to hack your phone and access your information is your "email inbox," so you should avoid opening links in promotional emails, opening suspicious attachments, or running application updates that you are prompted for via email.
Activation of "ANTIVIRUS" applications
You must use virus applications for smart phones, to protect your phone from malware and PDF files that hackers may use to access your data, and the most famous of these applications are Avast, McAfee and Panda.
Application settings
Check the apps on your phone to determine which ones have privileges that could harm your phone. You can accept or deny permission to access your camera, microphone, your contacts, or your location.
Checking where to download apps
Do not download any old application on your phone, and you must download applications on your iPhone through the Apple Store only, because it checks all the applications in it, and for Android, avoid downloading applications from a source other than Google Play, with the ability to adjust the settings to refuse to download any application From an unreliable place.
Do not use any untrusted external links
Charge your phone only by placing the USB connection in reliable ports such as your computer or your car, as public USB charging ports can be hacked to steal personal information. Try to use your own power bank while traveling.
