Blogs

March 11, 2017

Tech Tip #4: Safeguard your phone with encryption

This article was originally published on https://tapinto.net at http://bit.ly/MA-tech-tipe-4. In this article, I will introduce you to encryption, the why and how of encrypting the data on your phone. What is encryption? Encryption is the science of scrambling data or messages into an unreadable message. The purpose of encrypting data is to protect sensitive data to keep unauthorized users from reading your data or messages even if they were to get their hands on your phone. A simple word such as “password” can be encrypted through an algorithm to result in a long string of letters and numbers  “5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99”. Encryption on your phone  On Apple iPhones: Apple iPhones have an operating system installed on it called the iOS.  All data on your iPhone with iOS 8 or later are encrypted by default, once you set up a passcode. What this means is that no software can read the contents of your phone […]
January 18, 2017

Secure Your Email From Hackers

A Gmail phishing* attack has been perpetuated on millions of users in which the hacker sends you a fake email with an attachment that appears to come from one of your friends. Clicking on the attachment takes you to a replica of a Gmail login page. Once you enter your login and password, your email account is successfully hacked. A single step authentication, i.e., using only your password to unlock your account, can be readily compromised by the ‘phishing’ attacks as described above, enabling hackers to access your account. However, the use of an additional layer of security in form of ‘two-step verification’ will prevent an unwanted individual to access to your email when your password is compromised. In these days, it has become an absolute must to set up 2-step verification on all of your email accounts as well as other Internet-based accounts. If you are interested in making your […]
January 18, 2017

Secure your smartphone with your fingerprint

This post written by Niru Mallavarupu originally appeared on the Tap Into Springfield as a Technology Tip. Smartphones have become an inseparable part of our lives and the better we secure it, the safer is our personal data. Our previous tech tip last week showed you how to secure your smartphone with a passcode. This week we will show you how to secure your smartphone with your fingerprints. Note that in the unpleasant event that you are arrested or pulled over by a police officer, you can be forced to unlock your phone with your fingerprint, while they cannot force you to unlock with your passcode. The reason is you can always claim that you have forgotten your passcode. On your Apple iPhone: Step 1: Go to the Settings and select the option “Touch ID and Passcode” (Figure 1) from the menu. You will be asked to enter your passcode […]
January 17, 2017

Secure your smartphone with a passcode

This article written by MobileArq Founder Niru Mallavarupu was originally published in Tap Into – https://www.tapinto.net/towns/springfield/articles/tech-tip-securing-your-smartphone Since smartphones have become an inseparable part of our lives, everything we do is stored on our phone – pictures, notes to self, logins to social networks and more. God forbid if our phone gets stolen; this will not be just a mere inconvenience but may lead to a significant personal loss from unauthorized access to our private accounts. Here is a simple tip to ensure that only you have access to your phone: Tip #1. Set up a passcode. On Androids, you can go from “Settings” to “Lock Screen and Security” (Figure 1.) and select “Screen Lock Type” (Figure 2). You will be presented with 5 types of security options.   Select the option “PIN” to set up a passcode. It will ask you to enter a 4-digit number that you can remember. This […]