SECURITY - ANTI-MALWARE - 07.12.2011

Your mobile device also deserves protection!

Lock the front door

It may be annoying if you use your device constantly, but our first piece of advice is to activate the access code. This constitutes an essential protection. No one finding your device - or stealing it - will be able to pry through your data.

Make sure there’s nothing to be found

You can have your data deleted automatically whenever someone tries to guess your access code. This is a default setting in iOS (via Settings; General; Passcode Lock). If this function is activated, all data on your iPhone will be deleted after five failed attempts to access your device (ten attempts on the iPad). Android devices need an app such as Autowipe. Note. Make very regular backups of your device, so that you can restore everything in case you accidentally “auto-delete” everything!

Keep track of your device

Make sure that you can track the location of your mobile device remotely. For iOS 5.0 devices, Apple offers the free Find My iPhone-service (http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/find-my.html). It allows you to show the GPS location of your device on a Google map, play an alert or display a warning on your device, lock the device remotely or even delete all the information it contains. Android doesn’t have such an integrated location function, but there are free apps such as Lookout Mobile Security (https://www.mylookout.com).

Be cautious when installing apps

If you download new apps from the App Store or the Android Market, you can be relatively sure that they won’t contain any malware. However, many app shops are run by third parties, especially for Android (e.g. GetJar - http://www.getjar.com), and you should be much more wary of the apps that are on offer here. Whatever shop you use, preferably install only those apps which appear to be downloaded frequently and which are given excellent user ratings. Also pay attention to the types of access any new apps request: if they ask for access to your Twitter account or to your address book and they don’t need this at all, uninstall them immediately.

Install an anti-malware app

To date, malware hasn’t constituted a major threat for mobile devices, but this may well change in the near future. Since iOS is, on the whole, less vulnerable to malware, there are no dedicated apps as yet. The free Lookout Mobile Security (https://www.mylookout.com) only warns you that you’re using an insecure Wi-Fi network and helps you to make a remote backup of your data. In contrast, the Android version of this app does actively protect your device against malware. A good and equally free Android alternative is Zoner AntiVirus (http://www.zonerantivirus.com/clanek/android).

Don’t share everything via Wi-Fi

If you use a non-secure public Wi-Fi network, all traffic from your mobile device can be easily intercepted. So if you’re on such a network when visiting an e-banking or webmail site, use the secure httpsversion. If this isn’t available, it’s best to use your 3G or 4G data connection: it may be slower, but it’s safer.