- Put a passcode on your phone.
Tell the participants that the easiest thing for them to do is to put a passcode on their phone. Having a passcode will make it harder for someone to pick up your phone to scroll through, access your accounts, or install something malicious. Also let them know that in the event that their phone gets stolen or they lose it, it’ll make it a bit harder for others to get into their phone.
- Turn off location sharing.
Encourage the participants that turning off location sharing is not only safe but also helps to increase the battery life on their phone.
- Turn off Bluetooth when not using.
Tell participants that Bluetooth allows their phones to communicate with other devices, and if accessed by someone else though, they could misuse it to access their information or intercept calls. Turn off the Bluetooth on your phone and turn it on only when you need to connect with another device.
- Encourage participants to check their privacy & security settings.
They can find these controls through the settings on the phone or through the settings of a specific app. These settings may allow you to limit an application’s access to the data on your phone, including access to your location, pictures, contacts, notes, etc.
- Encourage participants to review the apps they download
Because some apps could be accessing private information or could be a monitoring program that someone suspiciously installed.
- Also encourage participants not to store sensitive information on their phone.
Although it may be tempting to store information such as passwords, account numbers, or personal information on their phone, the less sensitive information you have, the less likely someone else can access it. Advise them to consider deleting sensitive text messages or voicemails so they’re not stored on their phone.
- Train participants on using anti-virus and anti-spyware software on their phones.
They can search for programs in the app stores though some phones come with built-in software that they won’t want to override.
Related
