If you have a cell phone, and you use it in any way associated with accessing online accounts (and many do), you are putting yourself at risk of getting hacked. With only a phone number and a bit of information, which is easy to get through social engineering, a hacker can break into your personal and financial accounts.

This works by getting information about you, such as your birthday, address, or even the last four digits of your Social Security number…information that is readily available…and

The iPhone has a vulnerability called the Signaling System 7 (SS7) that allows crooks to hack into the device.

This was demonstrated on a recent “60 Minutes” episode in which a U.S. congressman (with his permission) had his iPhone hacked by German cybersecurity experts. The white-hat hackers got his phone number and eavesdropped on the conversation.

Penetration of the flawed SS7 makes it possible to listen in on conversations, intercept texts and track the victim’s movements. The congressman subse

Let’s cut to the chase:

• Regularly back up the phone’s data! If this is done every day, you won’t have to worry much about losing important information if something happens to the phone—such as a ransomware attack.
• Keep the phone’s software and applications updated.
• Delete apps you no longer use, as these can reveal your GPS coordinates and garner data about you.
• Never post about your vacation while you’re on vacation.

But there’s more:

• Employ the device’s password-protect function (which may even be a

If you have an iOS device, you may be leaking personal information about yourself—without even knowing it—because you’re not familiar with the privacy settings.

Apps have “permissions,” meaning, they can access private information such as your social calendar stored on the phone, appointments, anything. Go to the privacy menu under “settings” to learn which apps can gain this access and deactivate it. And there’s so much more to know…

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• The Limited Ad Tracking option controls how targeted the ads

Of all the weird things that can happen to your iOS device, the latest is a relatively benign situation in which a string of text is sent to the phone…and it causes the phone to crash.

The phone will reboot if the particular nonsensical text string is received while the phone is locked.

Data won’t be stolen; nobody will gain remote control of your device (yet); but heck, who wouldn’t be very annoyed that their phone crashes? And this is going on all over the world. The text characters can also be

If you think there’s like a million apps out there, that’s not exactly an exaggeration. For sure, there are more than you can imagine, which makes it easy to conceive that many certainly come with security problems.

In fact, out of the top 25 most popular apps, 18 of them bombed on a security test from McAfee Labs recently.

Creators of apps put convenience and allure ahead of security. This is why so many apps don’t have secure connections—creating welcome mats for hackers; they get into your smar

In the event of an attack, new smartphone applications can be used to send an alarm to a pre-chosen person. And the potential victims location can then be tracked.

But is this faster and more secure than a woman whipping out pepper spray and blasting a drunken buffoon who has her cornered in a parking garage at night?

No.

Apps meant for personal security are simply one layer of protection but in no way should be relied upon for personal protection. I mean, come on!!!! IT’S AN APP!!!!!!!

For the iPho

18 February 2011

Citicus, a corporate risk management and compliance specialist, has released a risk analysis/management app for the iOS range of Apple devices – the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.