Smart Phones, Tablets, E-Readers and hand held Gaming devices are all mobile devices with built in Wi-Fi capabilities.
While the devices offer tremendous convenience, their growing popularity makes them a more acute target for hackers, so it’s important that you consider the safety of your personal information on whatever device you use.
Below is a list of safety tips to help you safely use these types of devices.
Things Mobile Users Should Do
- Protect your mobile device with a password or passcode and lock your phone when it is not in use.
- Be sure to use all security options available on your device. Also, consider adding additional security and antivirus software.
- Apply updates; Smartphones require updates to run applications and the operating system securely. If users neglect this, it increases the risk of having your device hacked or compromised.
- Be sure to “Log out” once you have completed your mobile banking session.
- Monitor your accounts on a regular basis and report any suspicious activity to your financial institution.
- When downloading applications to your mobile device take the same precautions that, you would when downloading information to your personal computer.
- Download apps from your phones official app store. Downloading from third party app stores increases your risk of receiving malware, Trojans and virus infected applications.
- Be aware of applications that enable geo-location. Most often, geo-location is used for marketing purposes from trusted sources; however, criminals can use this feature to track your physical location for burglaries or stalking. Things Mobile Users Should not Do
- For your security, we recommend that you do not “jailbreak” your phone or otherwise disable its built-in security features. Doing so may put your personal and private information at risk.
- Do not allow your device to connect to unknown wireless networks.
- Never send any personal information (account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc) via text message. These are not secure and can be intercepted by hackers.
- Never send any personal information (account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc) via text message. These are not secure and can be intercepted by hackers.
- Do not store private information on your phone. Make a habit of frequently deleting any unnecessary information on your device including browser history and text messages. It is very important that you remove all sensitive information before discarding your telephone.
- Do not open any messages from an unknown sender, and do not click on unfamiliar links that may be sent via text message.
