Secure Your Mobile Communications + Bonus Material

1. What You'll Learn About Mobile Device Security: This third section of our course is focused on protecting your mobile devices and understanding and creating accounts for encrypted communications. If not properly secured, smartphones and tablets have the same potential for risk is your laptop or desktop computer. Actually the risk should be considered greater because the devices are moving with you, tracking your physical movements and connecting digitally with the beacon readers and Wi-Fi networks you pass through creating a pretty accurate picture of your routines and locations. The following four lectures will focus on device updates using strong passcodes, the device security settings, and the use of encrypted communication apps. And although the communication tools that will download, configure, and use in this section also need regular attention to updates, just like your computer will add an additional emphasis on the practice of how and with whom you use them. 2. Mobile Device Part 1: Updates: This lecture will cover the steps necessary to ensure that the operating system of your phone and tablet and all installed apps are up-to-date, making sure your device is running the most current version of the software. Maybe the greatest security measure you can take to protect it from malware and the possibility that someone might remotely take over your device. While the instructions for iOS and Android are detailed for the phone, the process is similar and performed in the same manner for all types of tablets. This lecture will walk you through how to update the operating system for your device. Your model may vary based on tight, but the process is essentially the same for all phones and tablets. However, there's always the possibility of a problem during the update process that might cause you to lose data. So before you install an operating system update, make it a habit to perform a backup before continuing to the update phase. Since updates are available for free from Apple and the latest security and bug fixes and features are installed easily and quickly. There's really no reason to put this off. Start by tapping the settings icon on your home screen. If it's not there, simply use the Finder feature to locate it. Scroll down and tap General screen that opens will be where you might see a notice of a pending update if you didn't already get one on the home screen, select software update. This screen is where he'll turn on automatic updates. See the details about the software version your device is running and can manually download and install any updates. Google, the makers of Android have created an incredible ecosystem, but with all this convenience, it also allows some vulnerabilities. And although the security of Google products has improved greatly, the user error element, it hasn't kept pace. Fortunately, updating the operating system of your phone or tablet is extremely intuitive on Android devices. Open the device's settings menu, scroll to the bottom of the menu, and tap check for updates or software updates. The exact method will depend on your device. For instance, you may have to tap on system and about phone. If an update is available, installed it immediately and permit automatic downloads of future software updates. If your device has the option, this will ensure you get them the moment they are available. For your iOS device. Open the App Store app at the top right of the screen, tap the profile icon. This will retrieve a list of apps that have updates waiting or have been recently updated. Rather than updating manual, have updates installed automatically? To do this, open the Settings app, tap the profile banner at the top, and scroll down to iTunes and App Store. Toggle automatic downloads to the on position. To check for application updates on your Android device, open the Play Store and tap the profile icon, and then manage apps and device. The next screen will display the update status of all your apps. It is highly recommended you allow automatic updates for apps if this option is available. Back at the Google Play Store, tap the profile icon, and then Settings Network preferences, and then auto update apps. Select the option that suits your needs. 3. Mobile Device Part 2: Passcodes: Your first-line of defense in protecting against unwanted access to your mobile devices is to lock them with a strong passcode and to limit the open screen time when not in use. This is the simplest practice yet most underutilized security feature of your device. The paradox of balancing privacy and security with convenience is that to increase one, you must decrease the other. This is where you need to determine what your personal situation requires. A long complex password would be better than a sixth one to pass code. But with the tiny mobile device keyboard, this could be a barrier too high for most. Look at all the personal information stored on your phone and imagine someone with ill intent accessing it all simply because it might take you a few seconds to unlock your phone. Even a one digit increase can make your passcode ten times stronger. My suggestion is to not give up your privacy and security purely for the sake of convenience. It's never worth it. Like many decisions concerning the use of your digital devices, this may come down to convenience and how comfortable you are with your risks surface. That is to say what you're willing to expose if compromised. This tutorial is focused on the passcode or pin number you used unlock your device. Because Touch ID and Face ID authentication are considered less secure, you will have to read your phone models suspects to become familiar with all the options, but in general, uses six digit default setting at the minimum, create a longer and more complex login code by using the custom alphanumeric code option, uses the touch or Face ID feature for interfacing with your apps at once the phone is already unlocked. Go to settings and scroll down to touch ID and passcode. Find the required passcode option and choose the settings you prefer. Example already has a passcode set. So to access the Optional settings, I'll need to start the process for changing the passcode to see them. Note, if you're using touch ID, the setting for required passcode is always immediately. The only way to change that is to disable touch ID. If you use an Android device, you have several options available to you. But most importantly, do not use a pattern to unlock your device. Patterns leave traces of themselves on your screen, and many of them are notoriously predictable. Numerical password of six or more characters is highly recommended. You should also encrypt your Android phone. Open Settings, select security and encryption and credentials. Your device may vary. If your phone is already encrypted, this option will be grayed out or notated. If it is not, charge your phone to at least 80%, leave it plugged in and choose to encrypt. Your phone allows the option of encrypting the SD card. You should do this as well. 4. Mobile Device Part 3: Security Settings: This one is simple, remove unnecessary and unused applications. Many of the installed apps on your device have wide and often invisible access to your information which can compromise your privacy by collecting, transmitting, probably unsecured, and selling your data. Go through your applications and determine what you must keep. The most difficult part of this process, maybe the personal choices you will have to make to simplify the task and follow these guidelines. Remove any of the applications that you haven't used with in the last 30 days. The convenience lost against the privacy and security gained. And if in doubt, get rid of the app in question, you can always reinstall it. Most all models of Android and iOS devices allow you to have detailed control over app permissions, access to the phone's camera and microphone, contacts, location data, and more are under your control. Some apps and may require these functions. For instance, a messaging app will need access to your photos if you want to use it to send pictures. In a banking app will need access to your camera if you want to use it to scan and deposit checks. However, it should be up to you to decide what permissions each app should have. As with the removal procedure. Err on the side of caution, if in doubt, deny the permission, you can always enable it when you find it necessary. Open settings and scroll to the bottom with a list of your apps, begins tapping on an apple that you manage its permissions and notification settings. To modify these settings and Android open settings, apps and notifications and scroll down and select App Permissions. You will be shown the body sensors, calendar, camera, location, microphone, et cetera. Tapping. Any of these will show you the apps that currently have access. A slider button allows you to disable it. When your Wi-Fi is turned on, it is constantly transmitting a list of the Wi-Fi networks. Your phone is saved. These can reveal where you live, work and frequent and can set you up for a rogue access point attack. Your set of networks is also incredibly unique and can be used to track your device. You can defeat most of this is simply by turning off Wi-Fi when you leave your home or work. But this is easy to forget. You may find it even easier to periodically clean up your list of networks. The iPhone operating system does not allow you to delete individual networks except while you're connected to them. If you have not been careful about managing your Wi-Fi networks, it is recommended to delete them all by resetting your network settings. Keep in mind that this will delete all of your WiFi networks and you will have to reenter passwords for trusted networks to do this, navigate to Settings, General, reset, and then reset network settings. Deleting a Wi-Fi network and Android is incredibly simple. Open Settings. Network and Internet. Wi-fi. Scroll down to the saved and networks link and tap. Choose the network you wish to forget and tap it. This will open a screen to allow you to delete or modify the network, like updating the password if necessary. 5. Secure Your Communications: To wrap up this four-part mini-series on mobile device security, you will protect your personal communications by installing and setting up secure messaging for your voice and texts with the free version of an industry-leading app, think about how your call history and text messages are available to your mobile service provider. This data may go back years with some companies making even more attractive to malicious parties who looked to hack your service provider. There are many encrypted messaging apps to choose from. Always similar install and use instructions. But this section will focus on the one I consider the best overall choice. Wire. The wire app offers a comprehensive set of communication tools featuring messenger voice, video conference calls, file-sharing, and even external collaboration, all protected by secure end-to-end encryption. It is available as a standalone desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices. If you don't wish to install the app, you can access wire and all its features through a web login. The wire has not been around as long as some others in the industry. They have made their code available for independent audit, which can be as a high degree of integrity in their product Festival, you're not required to give wire your phone number. Like proton male, and my pseudo, which we discussed earlier. The encryption is only available within the apps network, hence the term end-to-end. Getting your friends, family, and coworkers to use them as the last step in building your secure communication network starts small and be consistent. And soon all your texts, calls, video chats and file-sharing will be secure. Installing and using wire is incredibly easy regardless of which device you have it on. Even if you're using it through the web browser. Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play to get the app and put it on your phone and tablet already downloaded the desktop app from the wire website. Setup is intuitive and takes just a few minutes. Once it's installed, use the invite people to use wire feature to notify your friends, family and colleagues where they can find you connect with me at add symbol, NDS privacy, like all apps, review the axis options to your camera, Mike, photos, et cetera, and set them according to your needs. And as with all encrypted services, remember they only work within the network. So recruit people to use it, starting with those you are in contact with the most sooner will become second nature has reached with this app when messaging or calling those, you want to share the security of encryption. 6. What You Learned About Mobile Device Security: In this section, we've covered three basic strategies for locking down your mobile devices against unwanted access and started to use an encrypted servers for your communication needs. There is another level to enhancing security, like the implementation of a VPN and keeping our devices in a faraday bag when not in use. But this is the foundation. And if you follow this program, you've made yourself a much, much smaller target for the criminal types that might consider you a potential victim. The last section is bonus material that provides a glimpse into what you'll experience at the next level of protecting your privacy and digital security. 7. BONUS: Cleaning Up Your Digital Clutter: Now it's time to focus on reducing your online attack surface and clean up your digital clutter by identifying and closing unused accounts. Online accounts exist in an area that is outside your reach. That is to say they're on hardware that you did not control, owned by companies that make very few promises to you, but how they will handle your data, accounts you no longer use represent nothing but risk. You've already began to make your current accounts more secure by changing passwords and implementing two-factor authentication. But those abandoned accounts and neglected email account, forgotten MySpace page or bulletin board profile or the e-commerce login you created for that onetime purchase are still vulnerable to hackers, particularly if accurate information was used in the account. It is still out there and still at risk. And that risk is even greater if you aren't regularly updating to stronger passwords and monitoring them, much like the application audit you performed earlier in the course, you should audit your online accounts by identifying those online accounts, determining what you want to keep or delete. And if you're keeping an account, do the following, login and change all the information, defaults information were possible, your name, birthday, your hometown, everything except your email address. You still want to be able to be notified if a breach occurs or somewhat attempts to log into your account. Next, secure the account with a good strong password and if available, two-factor authentication, continue the practice of cleaning up this clutter by deleting old emails, cleaning out Cloud Storage, and getting rid of old messages. 8. BONUS: Using Private Payment Methods: Obscuring your banking information from unauthorized viewing is an essential part of establishing your privacy. Fortunately, there are a few services that make this easy. This lecture will focus on one, privacy.com, but the instructions can be transferred to most all other service providers of this type, including blur and my pseudo. These services must be connected to your actual bank account for funding. They still provide an excellent layer of protection in two ways. You create individual credit cards for specific vendors. And so if the vendor is compromised, it can't be used elsewhere and you set the spending limit and frequency. The most obvious private payment strategy is to use cash, but this is almost entirely restricted to in-person purchases. Besides, it's likely that a lot of your purchasing and re-occurring bill payments are done online. This is where a tool like privacy.com makes it simple. Regardless of which service you go with, the one-year accounts are setup, begin using them the next time you login to pay a phone bill, utility, or make any online purchase, change your payment method to your masked card. Once you've done this, delete your real card from your payment options. This ensures that if your account provider is breached, your personal credit information will still be safe. Using Apple Pay or one of the equivalent apps for Android can provide a layer of security between your banking information and the vendor you purchase from. By implementing anonymized tokens, an encrypted version of your credit card number, the real number won't actually be transferred. And because all of the services are handling credit card information, they must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The PCI standard is the Information Security Standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards from the major card issuers, like all things digital, what you give up and privacy for the convenience of a service is the choice. You'll have to make. 9. BONUS: Help Others Become Private and Secure: The last item to completing this workshop is perhaps one of the most important you can undertake. Helping others to become more private and secure. You will find that helping others to become more private and secure is extremely rewarding. It can be quite gratifying knowing that you're helping your spouse, parents, friends, or coworkers to be more resilient to hacking, unwanted attention and other invasions of privacy. Also, it's in everyone's self-interest to join. You. Don't forget that your friends and family have sensitive information about you, including photos, your phone number, and real e-mail address. Making them more secure, makes you more secure. And by increasing the users of services like last pass, proton male, my pseudo and privacy.com. You can help these companies and services grow and become a force in the marketplace. 10. Congratulations On Completing the Course!: In this course, you took significant steps to secure your personal privacy and digital security. If you'd like individual instruction in any of the content we've covered, please visit courses dot NDS, privacy.com, and view the Coaching plans offered. You can also email info at India's privacy.com with any questions or requests for specialized training. Thanks for taking the course and I look forward to seeing you again soon.