Protecting Your Smartphone

I’ll admit it. I love my smartphone. I have one of those huge beasts that is so large that it is called a phablet (phone + tablet). And, my demands on the device are huge as well.

On it, I read Kindle and other eBooks; listen to live radio, recorded podcasts, and purchased songs; play games; track my (kind of) daily exercise program; record my morning weight; bank; communicate via email, text, and voice; and pay bills.

If I ever lost it, I’d be screwed at least for a few days until I created new passwords for all of the sites I need. But, if it were ever broken into, either virtually or in person, I’d screwed for years. After all, anyone who gets inside my smartphone also gets the low down on all that I do, everyone who I know, and all of the business and financial contacts and dealings that I do. This would be a problem that would take years to fix.

So, I protect my phablet. Now, while it is physically protected by a screen protector and a rubber case, its real protection comes from elsewhere. On my smartphone, I have the premium version of Kaspersky Internet Security for Android running at all times. It does no bog down my system while protecting my device, its data and MY identity. While you don’t need Kaspersky, you must have some software program protecting you and your phone.

Other actions I do to keep my phablet safe are keeping my Near Field Communication and Bluetooth off unless I am actually using them. I do the same with wifi. Also, my phone is always password protected by a password that has special characters, upper and lower case letters, and numbers. It is a phrase that is special to me. An example password phrase could be “greed is good,” but typed out this way, GrEed!$g0oD.

A final step I have taken to protect me and my smartphone is enacting its encryption. As hinted at above, I have an Android device, and, as far as I can tell, enabling encryption only added one more step to the log in process when the phone is turned on again. Otherwise, there is no indication that is has been protected this way. Encrypting your phone keeps outsiders from accessing it.