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The best Hacking prevention tool for your mobiles

The sensitive data you store on your phone makes it a prime target for the hackers. While you are more likely to hear about celebrities or public figures getting targeted for cybercrimes, the truth is that phone hacking can happen to anyone. Smart-phones have brought all private accounts and data for single, convenient location by making phones the perfect target for a hacker. Everything from banking to email or social media is linked into your phone. That means once a criminal gets access to your phone, all your apps are open doors for cybertheft.

How to Protect Your Phone from Hackers

1.Check Your App Permissions

When you install an app, it’ll likely request access to some integral features for the device including camera, email, photo gallery, location, contact list, and more. Carefully review each of

Here’s how you can check the permissions for all your installed mobile apps:

iOS: Go to Settings > Privacy. You will see a list of all the device features. Click on that specific feature to see which apps have permission to access it. You can turn off the permission from that screen.

For Android: Go to Settings > Permission Manager - You will get the list of the feature and the apps which have permissions to access those apps. 

All the Android phones have different names for the permission checking tab. It depends on which brand’s phone you are using.

2. Install Security Software Tools on Your Mobile Device

Antivirus software and anti-malware software aren’t limited to computers only. You should use them on your mobile phones as well to protect your phone from hackers. When you surf online, different types of malware (such as viruses, trojan horses, worms, and more) can be installed on your device via malware-loaded websites. Your device also might get infected through malicious email attachments and apps.

Security software not only detects or removes malware but also can warn you when you visit a bad site and download a malicious app. Some malware gets downloaded on your mobile without your notice. The better security program scans and notifies you every time something downloads to your device.

With ‘freemium’ security software, typically the basic service is free. If you want to tighten the security and need more features, you can upgrade them for the commercial service. You should check the advantages or disadvantages either free or paid versions to determine the best solution for your device.  

3. Only Download Apps from Trusted Sources

Mobile apps can access for the lot of personal information, it is important that you only install trustworthy ones on your device. The simple way to do this is to start at the source. Make sure you only download apps that are available on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and other trustworthy platform. Any app found on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store must meet certain security criteria before being approved and also scanned to ensure they do not contain malware.

4. Keep Your Phone with You at All Times

Although hackers can access your phone remotely, the simple way for someone to get into your phone is through physical access. It is also easy to prevent someone from grabbing your phone by ensuring you keep it on your person whenever you are outside your home. As long as you have followed the other tips on this list, your data should be well protected even in the event a hacker gets a hold of your phone. Hackers only need a few minutes to break into your phone so leaving it unattended for the public setting is never a good idea. It of course, accidents do happen but prevention is key.

5. Avoid Using Public Wi-Fi and Use a Virtual Private Network If You Do

Hackers can exploit insecure connections to eavesdrop and steal the data from connected devices. It is one type of man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack. The next tip on how to protect your phone from hackers: avoid by using public Wi-Fi (such as in airports, hotels, malls, shops, cafes, and more). If you do have to use public Wi-Fi, you can reduce your risk by using a virtual private network (VPN). They are many free or inexpensive VPN providers available to choose from. One of the many benefits VPNs provide is that the VPN passes on the web-traffic via a private encrypted channel. Even if someone has broken the internet connection and intercepting your traffic, they won’t be able to read, interpret, and modify anything due to VPN’s encryption facility. You just need to install the VPN app and turn it on at the time of using the public Wi-Fi. It is quite simple to use.

6. Protect Yourself from SIM Swapping

SIM swapping occurs when a bad guy calls your mobile service provider and asks for the replacement SIM card. This unauthorized SIM swapping is possible when a hacker has access to some of your confidential information (including the last four digits of your social security number and any identity proof document) and uses it as part of their social engineering scam. If they’re successful in convincing your mobile provider to port your number, the attacker can intercept to all your phone calls, SMS text messages, and potentially gain access to all accounts and services that are linked to your phone number.

To protect you from unauthorized SIM swapping or number porting, set up a unique PIN or passcode with your mobile service provider. This would be a number that only you know that you have to use to access and make changes to your mobile account (such as number/account porting from another device).

You can also use apps such as Authy, Google Authenticator, and Google’s code-less authentication method to add another layer of security. Apple’s two-step verification feature can send an OTP to registered device whenever someone tries to log in from a new device. This adds an additional layer of non-SMS-based MFA security to your device. To inserts a replacement SIM card into a new device, they still cannot activate it until they provide the OTP, which iOS sends only to your (registered) device and another phone number linked/connected to your primary phone number. You can also set an app-specific password, so no one can open your apps without providing those passwords.