Why is smartphone security so important?

Let’s pause for a second here and think about the astonishingly smart palm-sized device – that is our phone. A decade or two ago it would have been impossible to imagine all the things that a modern-day smartphone can do. A day without our smartphone is quite unimaginable. From remembering our meeting schedules to the directions to the new restaurant in town, the phone has it all.

If you take a quick stock of all the activities you perform on your phone throughout the day, you will be amazed to see that for most of the day-to-day task we are dependent on our phones. Right from paying our bills to booking a cab to looking for weather updates, we do it all on our phone, not to mention all the social media scrolling, texting, and binge-watching our favourite videos.

That brings us to a very important point here. Given that we do so much on our phone, the amount of personal information and data that a smartphone deal is huge. Like someone wise said, with great data comes great security threats.

Hence, we cannot ignore the importance of security and protection of our smartphones.

• Are smartphones truly safe?
• Are smartphones beyond the reach of cyber attackers?
• Can your smartphone be hacked?

It is a sad reality that mobile security is not taken as seriously as we take laptop and PC security. Firewalls, antiviruses, endpoint security, data protection, etc. are unheard of in the mobile security space. For most people, mobile security just ends at putting a back cover on their phones to save it from accidental falls.

While consumers are not taken mobile security seriously, meanwhile, mobile phones are becoming more and more valuable targets for attackers. People are using smartphones for an increasing number of activities and often store sensitive data and passwords on their devices. Social networking apps keep a wealth of personal information on our phones. With recent innovations in payment technologies, users conduct many transactions from their smartphone, such as redeeming coupons and tickets, banking, mobile wallets, etc.

Vulnerabilities in smartphones:

Mobile phones share the same vulnerabilities as a PC when it comes to cyberattack risks. Let’s have a look at some of the pertinent vulnerabilities of a mobile phone:

1. Given its size and handy nature, it is extremely easy to steal a smartphone. And if the phone doesn’t have a strong security gateway it becomes a cakewalk for the hacker to break into your phone and steal your information. This makes stealing information much easier on a smartphone than on a PC.

2. There are countless numbers of apps developed all around the world for mobile phones. Many seemingly legitimate apps are malicious which can be openly found and downloaded on the Internet. Without a strong protection suite in place, these malicious apps, if get downloaded, can wreak havoc on your phone and hack your data.

3. Phishing attacks are as common in mobile phones as they are in PCs. With misleading SMS emails or even voice calls, attackers can make you download malicious software on your phone. To identify phishing messages and block them at the source, one needs a strong mobile security solution.

4. Legitimate mobile phone software and network services have vulnerabilities, just like PCs. Attackers have exploited these vulnerabilities in software to hack, crash phone software, or conduct other attacks. To keep such dangers at bay one needs a robust and well-designed mobile security suite that can identify and nip such vulnerabilities in the bud.

Quick Heal Total Security for Android mobiles and tablets is a powerful security suite designed specifically for new-age smartphone users to keep them safe from all kinds of cyber threats.

In the upcoming blogs, we shall discuss how to keep our smartphones secured and safe from cyberattacks.