Yahoo Finance 5 Apps to Keep Your Cellphone Safe From Security Threats
How many times have you ...
Deposited a check on your smartphone?
Paid for something on a public Wi-Fi network?
Given your personal information to an app you just downloaded?
Yet how many mobile security tools have you downloaded to protect yourself during those transactions?
Although a growing number of Americans use their smartphones for banking, payments and social media, many fail to consider that mobile check deposits or credit card payments may make their personal and financial information more vulnerable to theft and fraud.
A 2013 study from the Pew Research Center reported that 63 percent of cellphone owners use their phone to go online, and one-third of these users access the Internet mostly through their phone, not their personal computer. The same year, Bank of America reported the number of consumers logging on to the bank's mobile app surpassed the number accessing the online platform.
"With the growth of mobile banking apps, people are doing more and more sensitive tasks on their mobile devices, and that is only going to increase as mobile devices just become more prolific," says Joe Osborne, senior editor of TechRadar, an online publication that reviews technology products.
Experts warn that the rise in mobile banking and other Internet phone use leads to greater cybersecurity threats.
"We tend to think of these devices as nothing more than a phone with a camera, but they really are as complex in collecting all of your data the same way your computer would," says Eva Casey Velasquez, president and CEO of the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, which aids victims of identity theft.
Despite these threats, there are steps you can take to make your phone less vulnerable. For example, just like you can download security software on your desktop, you can download mobile apps to keep your phone safe from security threats. Here are five apps security experts say will protect your personal information:
Some phones are susceptible to malicious software that allows another person to remotely control your phone, warns Max Eddy, analyst and security expert at PC Magazine. This allows hackers to take files off your phone, listen to phone calls or look through data. Although difficult to install, many of these malwares are falsely packaged as spyware.
"You do not want to have another company or another individual that can have that kind of power over your phone," Eddy says.
To protect yourself against this kind of malware, he recommends downloading the NowSecure Mobile app, which monitors your phone's operating system, network and other apps for security vulnerabilities. NowSecure assesses these vulnerabilities on your phone and generates a security score. "It will give you a better idea of the information flowing into and out of your phone," Eddy says.
Platform: Android and iOS
Cost: Free
Most consumers don't think about securing their privacy when downloading an app, Eddy says, which is problematic when many apps retain information in ways consumers would not suspect.
"These free apps out there, most of them have ad components inside of them," Eddy says. "So your information is being gathered and stored by these ad networks who can then do whatever they want with it."
Clueful is an app-scanning service that provides a detailed look at the way your apps treat your privacy. It lets users know whether malware or other dangerous software is built into their apps and ranks the apps based on how they access and use personal information. "You can use this app to really make sure [your] apps are malware-free," Osborne says.
Platform: Android and iOS
Cost: Free
3. Skycure
With the growth of consumers connecting to the Internet using their phones, network attacks through public Wi-Fi have become a threat to personal information.
According to security experts, public Wi-Fi can be easily intercepted. For example, if you connect to public Wi-Fi in an airport, hackers could replicate this network in another location to get your data.
"If you are connecting to public Wi-Fi, any of that information on your phone is just as vulnerable as if you were hooked up to public Wi-Fi in your laptop," Velasquez says.
To combat Wi-Fi network attacks, Eddy recommends downloading Skycure, which performs tests on wireless networks to make sure there are no breaches. "Skycure is advanced enough to recognize these malicious networks, and it also stores the locations of those networks so that [Skycure] can now prevent them from hurting other [app users]," he says.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
4. Find My iPhone and Android Device Manager
Not only should you guard your data from online hackers, you should have a plan in the event a thief steals your phone.
In fact, Eddy says physical theft is one of the most common ways someone could obtain your personal information. "If someone is going to do something to your phone, they are probably going to do to it physically," Eddy says.
Luckily, iPhone users have a Find My iPhone application already installed on their device that can track the location of missing or stolen mobile devices. Find My iPhone allows users to sign into iCloud and put the phone on Lost Mode. This then locks the phone and shows a contact number on the lock screen. The app even allows you to remotely erase all the data on your phone in case it falls into the wrong hands.
For lost Android phones, users can use the Android Device Manager app, which includes the same remote lock and erase features as the Find My iPhone app.
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: Free
5. LastPass
Many consumers are accessing social media and other accounts through their phones. Although it's important to protect these accounts by using long, complex passwords, it can be tricky to remember them.
Eddy recommends using a third-party password generator like LastPass, which generates a safe password for you. LastPass then saves the passwords, so you don't have to remember them when you log in to an account on your phone or computer. "It can feel disconcerting to not know your own passwords, but it can actually be a lot safer to not know them because they are so long," Eddy says.
Despite the usefulness of not having to remember your passwords, Osborne cautions users before downloading this app. He says because of the millions of consumers using LastPass, it's an easy target for hackers.
"Putting all of your stuff into a password manager is fine, but you have to go into it with the assumption that things could happen and results may vary," Osborne says.
Platform: iOS, Android and Blackberry
Cost: $12 per year
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