Over the last eight years, Android has found its way to the top between operating systems for mobile phones. According to statista.com, Android holds 88% of sold mobile phones in the second quarter of 2018. At the same time the Apple operating system, iOS holds only 11.9% of the market.
Because of this, Android users are more vulnerable to hacker attacks, and they should be more careful about installing suspicious applications and should take more care of their security. Today, we are bringing you the top 6 ways how to keep your Android device safe.
1. Lock your phone
One of the simplest ways to keep your Android device safe is locking it. All android devices currently have the various option on how to secure your device. You can choose between PIN combination, pattern combination, face recognition, or fingerprint.
While you are setting up the locking for your device, you should consider lowering down the time for locking the Android device. It should be a portion of time that is not too short but not too long either (for example 15s).
In case you chose to go with a PIN combination, be sure not to use a PIN which can be guessed by other people (for example your birthday, house number, etc.)
The locking pattern is maybe a faster way to unlock your device but, in our opinion, it is less safe. Other people tend to remember it much easier, so this makes it less safe to use.
Facial recognition is also one great way to unlock your device, but it can sometimes get slow and inaccurate if used in an improper environment (light, pose, environment, etc.). Although it seems really safe, it can be easily hacked with your photo.
Another great way to unlock your device is by using a fingerprint sensor. Almost every new Android device has it and it’s fast and safe.
One of the safest ways to unlock your device is by using an Iris scanner, but not many Android devices have this option so far
2. Install only software from Play Store
Whenever you install new applications, you should install it from Google Play downloading such applications from fraudulent websites can lead to getting you infected with some virus or malware.
Most people don’t know that Google has implemented Google protect which has the purpose of scanning your Android device and game or application automatically you are installing.
. Keep your device up-to-date
As easy as it sounds, most people don’t take care of their updates on their phones. By default, this should be enabled, but if not you should check out new phone options if they’re set to automatically.
All Android device manufacturers prepare new updates for their phones, and you should periodically check if there are some new available for your device
You should also consider updating their applications regularly even though this should be done automatically by the Play Store. Application companies are periodically updating their apps to keep them and therefore your phone safe
4. Install security applications
As on your PC, you should also install some kind of Android Antivirus program on your phone.
There are security apps available from all known companies such as Avast, Bitdefender, McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, etc. Choosing between paid and free versions is really up to you, but you should remember and enable automatic updates for your Antivirus to get most of it.
One of the best free antivirus programs today is Avast Mobile Security & Antivirus. Besides keeping your device safe, it also has some other options. It’s additional features, like phone tracker, doesn’t work that well, but it’s good at finding and deleting malware.
5. Turn off connections when you don’t need them.
If you’re not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you should consider turning them off. You will save your battery and avoid getting hacked.
One of the examples is the BlueBorne Bluetooth hack which was using your Bluetooth connection to hack your device. Even though this was patched to stop this attack in its September 2017 release, you should still be careful because you never know when some other hacker can think of something similar.
6. Uninstall old application which you don’t use
Most of the application makers update their apps regularly. Unfortunately, not all of them.
There are a lot of applications on Google Play that haven’t been updated for a while. These applications can be much easier hacked by the bad guys and get into your phone.
You should especially be careful with applications used for fun (games, pranks applications, etc.) which were built to earn “quick” money with their ads.
Conclusion
Even if you follow these steps, we can’t be 100% sure that you will not get infected, but it should help. Use your common sense and be careful what application you install and how you use your device. In case that you have some questions or some of your advice, please leave us a comment below.