One Billion Served!

 


One billion-that's not how many have been served at McDonalds - instead it represents the number of smartphone and tablet owners. That number will undoubtedly keep growing and along with it will be the opportunity for security threats from outside sources. What steps are being done to help the consumer protect themselves from these types of threats and what can we do to help make our mobile devices more secure?

O/S vendors do seem to be taking notice and have been beefing up their systems with better security measures. Android, Blackberry, Apple, and Windows have all recently released new O/S versions containing stricter security controls.

Some of the enhancements include:

·         Windows 8 - increased password security

·         Android –heightened built-in security defaults

·         Blackberry – data encryption

·         Apple – built in cloud based password manager

Here is a security comparison of the various systems:
 

 

While it's important for vendors to start taking responsibility for developing more secure systems, consumers also need to be accountable for protecting their own information.

Some ways you can avoid a security intrusion are:

·         Frequently change your password and use a strong password (numbers, capitals, special characters) whenever possible.

·         Disable Bluetooth mode when not in use

·         Disable automatic WI-FI connections

·         Only install trusted apps

·         Keep your O/S updated

By arming yourself with the knowledge of how to implement protection measures and taking the above few simple steps; you can help ease some of the security threat concerns you might encounter. Doing nothing is not an option because with a billion mobile devices, there are plenty of opportunites for hackers to wreck havoc on your system.

Visit these sites for more information on this topic:

http://mobappsectriathlon.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-canshould-mobile-os-vendors-do-to.html

http://www.techfruit.com/2013/07/31/how-secure-are-the-various-mobile-operating-systems/

http://searchconsumerization.techtarget.com/tip/Comparing-mobile-operating-systems-manageability-and-security