How to Totally Secure Your Smartphone

There’s never been a better time to lock it down

Photo by Tayler Smith. Prop Styling by Caroline Dorn

The more we use our smartphones, the more we open ourselves up to the possibility that the data stored on them will be hacked. The bad guys are getting better and better at finding ways into our phones through a combination of subtle malware and exploits. A quick scan of recent news stories should be enough to worry even the least paranoid among us:

• Malware-infested apps such as the Android banking Trojan Ginp are constantly being uploaded to the Google Play and Apple App stores, let alone other dodgy app stores. This is nothing new, and most of us are smart enough not to knowingly download malware. But Google has found fake copies of legit apps with hidden backdoors that are infected, taking things to a new level and making it harder for them to police their store, let alone for us to distinguish these phony apps from legitimate ones
• Bad Binder is an Android-based exploit that can happen if we visit a malicious website, even without clicking on any links. It can then allow a hacker to remotely control any infected phone.
• Mobile app software development kits (SDKs) are being infected with increasing frequency. This OneZero story on hidden tracking features in many app SDKs is just one example of what’s out there, and in…