Today almost everyone has a smartphone and they go almost everywhere with us. We use them to keep connected at work, out with friends and with family. And those phones know so much about us, we have everything from our work e-mail, our address book, our friends and co-workers phone numbers, our latest snaps on Flickr, where we are with checks-ins on FourSquare, our Twitter feeds, and our Facebook Wall to name just a few of the common things most of do on our smartphones. Plus these days, with services like NFC, Mint, PayPal Mobile, Online banking and American Express’s Serve service, our phone can be as good as cash – It is becoming the 21st century wallet.
The problem is what happens if we lose our phone or if someone gains access to the data on it. You can get insurance to pay for a replacement phone and even cover losses from the misuse of financial accounts, those will take time and it will still be a pain in the back side. But for many of us there will be something even more damaging that money cannot fix, damage to personal and business relationships. In many cases our phones have people’s private phone numbers that they would be unhappy to see go public; our e-mails have private and confidential information, which if leaked, would cause harm to others and could ruin business deals or personal relationships. There is so much we do and so much of us on phones today, that you would never want to falling into the wrong hands.
Norton Mobile Security Lite
Today, Norton released Norton Mobile Security Lite (Donwload from here), a free security application for Android-based smartphones. Norton Mobile Security Lite seamlessly combines select anti-theft features with the potent antimalware protection. This new offering is initially available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Key Features
- Anti-theft – Remotely lock your lost or stolen device via SMS text and prevent strangers from seeing your private information or running up your mobile bill.
- Anti-malware – Scans all files and app updates downloaded to the mobile device and automatically detects and removes threats without slowing you down.
- Automatic LiveUpdate – Automatically downloads and installs security updates keeping you a step ahead of cybercriminals.
Easy Steps to Protect Yourself
We were lucky enough to get to speak Mark Kanok Group Product Manager for Consumer Mobile Products at Norton and he gave us the following general tips about what you should be doing with your mobile device:
- Lock or Password protect your phone. It is your first line of defense.
- When downloading Apps look at what they are asking permissions to do. One of the great things about the Android platform it shows you before you install an app what permissions (AKA what it can do with your phone) it is requesting. So review and understand what you will allow an app to do before you install. Do I want to give that free game from a firm I never heard of access to my phonebook and to be able to make calls? For me that wouldn’t make sense to allow in a context of a game.
- Watch out for links, especially short links. Act as you do on the computer. Did they come from someone you know or trust? Those links coming from untrusted source could take you someplace other than what was promissed like a phishing website or popup
We will have more from our talk in another post soon.
If You Ever Want or Need More
There is also the full version of Norton Mobile Security for an annual subscription price of $29.99. The full version adds remotely locate or wipe you phone; block unwanted calls or text messages; or block phishing websites used to steal personal information and money.
