Introduction to Cyber Security

SMARTPHONE SECURITY GUIDELINES

1. Purses, Wallets, Smartphones

We have an intuitive understanding of the value of keeping our purse or wallet safe, because so much sensitive information is stored in them, and losing them will compromise our privacy and safety. People are less aware of the amount of personal information being carried in their smartphones, and consider losing a phone a nuisance rather than a risk. If you also think that a smartphone is a computing device which is always connected to a network and is continually carried around, it also highlights the important difference between a holder of discrete, passive information (like a wallet), and an active and interactive item like a smartphone.
A simple exercise can help illustrate this:

Empty the content of your wallet or purse, and take account of sensitive items. Typically you may find: - Pictures of loved ones (~5 pictures) - Identification cards (driver's license, membership cards, social security cards) - Insurance and health information (~2 cards) - Money (~5 bills) - Credit/Debit cards (~3 cards)

Now, examine the contents of your smartphone. A typical smartphone user may find some of the above in higher quantities, and in some cases much more valuable items:

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  Pictures of loved ones (~100 pictures)
  
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  Email applications and their passwords
  
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  Emails (~500 emails)
  
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  Videos (~50 videos)
  
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  Social networking applications and their passwords
  
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  Banking applications (with access to the bank accounts)
  
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  Sensitive documents
  
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  Sensitive communication records
  
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  A live connection to your sensitive information
  

The more you use smartphones, the more you need to become aware of the associated risks and take appropriate precautions. Smartphones are powerful amplifiers and distributors of your personal data. They are designed to provide as much connectivity as possible and to link to social networking services by default. This is because your personal data is valuable information that can be aggregated, searched and sold.

It can be disastrous if you lose your phone without having a backup of your most important data (such as your contacts) in a secure location. Besides backing up your data, make sure you also know how to restore the data. Keep a hard copy of the steps you need to take so you can do it quickly in an emergency.
In this chapter we'll start by introducing some smartphone basics – a description of various platforms and some basic setup procedures for securing your information and communication. The remaining parts of this chapter will cover specific precautions related to common uses of smartphones.

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