After the massive boom during 2007 – 2010, the majority of young people now own a smartphone. The amount of these devices in the whole world will probably exceed 2 billion in the year 2016.

Yet despite these numbers, the awareness of security threats aimed at the mobile world is as small as it has been in the past few years regarding desktop computers. Mobile security doesn’t concern most of the users and the threats are often underestimated. Hackers do not sleep – they are very well aware of this ignorance and mobile devices are now one of their primary tools, for acquiring sensitive data.

Mobile security: How do we protect ourselves?

Hackers tend to use several tools, with which they can siphon sensitive information from your cellphone or tablet. These are the most frequent scenarios of privacy invasion and how to protect yourselves against them.

Wi-Fi based attack

Take great care when choosing a Wi-Fi network in an unknown place. The average user uses 10-100 times more Wi-Fi networks than on their laptop. In the case of an unsecured one, you face various dangers – firstly, the data isn’t encrypted so theoretically, anyone can access them. Secondly, an even greater danger in the form of “honeypots”, which are fraudulent Wi-Fi networks.

We recommend to only use secure sites (https://) when using an unsecured network and not to log into any account if you absolutely don’t have to. More experienced users can make use of private VPNs or SSH tunnels to be safer.

Malware

According to the statistics of Kaspersky Labs, mobile banking accounts have been attacked by trojan horses 9 times more often in they ear 2014 than in the previous year. Mobile malware is massively on the rise, however, most of the smartphone owners don’t have an anti-virus installed.

This can be a great protection against both trojan horses and others viruses as well. For a suitable choice of anti-virus software, take a look here for Android, or if you own an iOS device, here. Another important factor is to regularly update your operating system, which can be a problem, particularly in the case of Android-based devices.

The best way how to upgrade your online security experience is use password manager, which will relieve you from a single security activities. It’s remembers your login, your passwords and keeps everything under the highest encryption. Isn’t it about the time to try the best and easiest way how to protect your online identity?

More tips on mobile security

• Don’t click on suspicious articles on Facebook, lately appearing in Facebook groups.
• Only download apps, that you know or those, that have an obvious amount of positive review(be careful, as these can also be written by bots).
• Credit card payments and mobile banking should only be used on your home network or in places, in which you can be a 100% sure of sufficient security.
• Activate your phone’s tracker. If someone steals your phone, it will be that much easier to find.
• Use features like the fingerprint scanner or pattern drawing to lock/unlock your phone.

Terrifying statistics regarding mobile security!

• In the year 2014, more than a billion attack on smartphones has been reported. (Breach Level Index)
• Smartphones are the most vulnerable overall, with social media being a close second. (CyberEdge Group)
• 75% of applications don’t pass the basic security test. (Gartner)
• since 2011, the amount of attacks on Android smartphones has increased by 188% and by 262% on iOS devices. (FireEye)

Applications for password management are serious business nowadays. It`s reliable protection of your online identity not only for your desktop client but also for mobile devices. Saferpass created smart replacement of desktop applications – an extension for Google Chrome, that allows you to add and manage your online accounts, saving time by signing in automatically and pre-filling your login data, automatically saves new accounts for new registrations and has a unique service Secure Me, which comes to the rescue by securing all accounts on all devices with one simple click from any one of our user’s devices.

Enable now SaferPass for Google Chrome and experience a simple and fast way to manage all your passwords, you can also install our iTunes app, so you will have access to your passwords on your iPhone.