Keep your mobile devices malware-free and protect your digital life with Bitdefender this Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Did you know that there are 6.92 billion smartphone users across the world today?

Smartphones have become a primary means for users to go online, store and transmit sensitive data.

Unfortunately, there’s also an unsavory side of owning and using these handheld mobile devices. This increased use brings a surge of security risks that threaten our identities and money.

Although keeping your device password-protected and with you at all times can help you defend it against crooks in the physical world, it won’t stop digital threats from harming you and your data.

Once cybercriminals gain access to your mobile device, they can easily steal the information found in the apps and accounts that you own, including:

• Your email and social media accounts
• Your media files such as videos and photos
• All of your banking information
• Notes and sensitive documents
• Your browser history and much more

With the abundance of malicious apps, vulnerabilities, spyware and even mobile ransomware, owning a mobile device is risky business and you must keep it always protected.

Follow these three easy steps so you can secure your phone and protect the digital you:

1. Download your apps only from official stores

Are you always in search of the latest apps? Before downloading an app, research it and its publishers. Be wary of any links that might trick you into installing a new application from unknown sources to prevent harmful apps from compromising your device and information.

2. Never give apps unjustified permissions

Do your homework before installing a new app. To protect your mobile device, check what type of data the apps on your phone are accessing, collecting and potentially sharing with external parties.

Go through the privacy policies and check the permissions of all of your installed apps. You can change or deny permissions directly from your phone’s settings menu.

As a rule of thumb, if an app requires permission to access data beyond its functionality, never download it on your device. For example, a flashlight app that requires access to your phone’s microphone, phone contacts or call logs should be avoided. Don’t forget to keep your apps up to date and delete those you no longer use.

3. Scan your phone for malware regularly

Downloading apps from random sources or even from official app stores (yes, even well-known app stores can occasionally house malicious applications that can steal your data) comes with all sorts of nasty internet pests, such as mobile spyware, banking malware, credential-stealing trojans and ransomware.

To avoid compromise, we recommend installing a trusted antivirus and anti-malware security solution to keep you protected against old and new e-threats targeting your mobile device.

Wondering if your smartphone is sufficiently protected against malicious apps and digital snoops?

Try Bitdefender Mobile Security to gain the most powerful protection against the latest threats. On top of on-demand and on-install scanning of all of your apps, and advanced web protection with anti-phishing systems to detect and block fraudulent pages, you also get an industry-first addition to your digital security toolkit, known as App Anomaly Detection (for Android only).

App Anomaly Detection is a real-time, behavior-based layer of protection added to Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android that adds an extra layer of security against apps that attempt to evade regular detection by exhibiting latent malicious behavior.

Read more about our security and privacy solutions, here.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on our blog.