Securing your Mobile Devices

Mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets have become a major part of a lot of our lives. Devices including Android phones, Iphones, and Ipads can do just about anything a normal computer can do, so they are vulnerable to most of the same things. Many people also link their mobile device to their work somehow. If you have your work email connected to your phone or tablet, chances are that you have private and/or confidential data on your device.

With the rise of popularity of these mobile devices, hackers have begun to target them. Some viruses will have your phone make calls to premium numbers thereby directly giving hackers your money. Other viruses will steal your phone or email contacts making spammers jobs that much easier. As stated above, your phone may have private and/or confidential data and you would be surprised how much that information can be worth to some people.

There are things you can do to protect yourself.

1. The first thing you should do is set a screen lock for your phone. Usually the options for this is require a pattern, pin, or password to unlock your phone. The pattern is the least secure of these options while the password is the most secure.
2. Download an antivirus program. While these programs are not as sophisticated as the AV programs on your PC, they do a great job. Most of the major AV companies provide mobile protection so you can pick your favorite. There are also free choices as well as paid programs.
3. Download the Lookout Security https://www.mylookout.com/ mobile app. This is a free app that can also provide premium services for a fee. The services are:
• Scanning Apps for Malware or Spyware. This is done as you download apps and on-demand.
• Data Backup. Regular backup of your data.
• Missing device protection. This service can locate, lock, scream or even wipe your device in the event is goes missing. This is done from the Lookout website.
• Privacy Adviser (Premium). This will scan your apps and let you know what information they can access.
• Safe Browsing (Premium). This will help protect you from malicious content will browsing the web.
4. Review the permissions you are giving an app when downloading it. If your downloading a magazine app and one of the permissions include making calls or reading contact information, this can indicate a problem. Use your best judgement when downloading apps. You should also do some research before downloading apps on your phone or tablet.

By taking these simple steps, you can have the peace of mind knowing that data belonging to you, your employer and even your customers and business partners are more secure.

General Windows PC Security

This week I will describe general safety and security that everyone with a computer should be implementing. This includes running antivirus, using passwords, and keeping programs up to date. These are the things that should be done at a minimum to keep your computer secure.

Antivirus ( or AV ) should be run at all times. This is a program that specializes in finding viruses ans quarantining them. Most AV programs can be bought such as Mcafee and Norton. If you do not want to pay for AV then there are great options such as Avast! Antivirus ( www.avast.com ) Things to consider with your AV is keeping it up to date and running periodic scans. The easiest way to handle this is to automate this. What I mean by that is that there are usually options to make it automatic. So you can set it, then forget it.

Passwords is a topic that often comes up in my blog so I hope you can see it is important. Passwords should be set for all your accounts. This can be done in Control Panel -> User Accounts. This will keep people from accessing your computer when you don't want them too. For more information on passwords, see my earlier post.

The last item I will discuss is keeping programs up to date. This is where people start to shy away since it can get complicated so I will try to demystify it. The reason you want to keep programs up to date is because hackers constantly find new ways to get in to your system and programs release "security updates" to "patch" these vulnerabilities. If you are not patched, you are vulnerable to known "holes" into your system. Here is what you should keep up to date at a minimum:

• Windows OS.
• This is done via Control Panel -> Windows updates
• Microsoft Office
• This is done via Control Panel -> Windows updates
• Your Web Browser
• This varies between browsers but I suggest using something like Google Chrome that updates itself.

To wrap up I would like to suggest that you download Baseline Security Analyzer. This will scan your computer for the items I mentioned above plus more and tell you how to fix it. Get it here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184923.