If you have an email address, bank online, or have ever purchased anything off the web you are likely going to eventually experience a data breach. It has become so commonplace that internet users pretty much know the drill; change your password often and never use the same credentials in the same place. But why in particular would mobile phone, tablet, and laptop users be more susceptible to data breaches than those using PCs? The answer lies in three places; mobility, software updates, and blind trust.
Mobile Devices and Software Updates
Whether you are checking your Google account on the latest Samsung Galaxy mobile phone or you prefer to do your mobile computing on an iMac, one of the dangers you are going to face is with security patches and software updates. When an operating system or even a security tool on a mobile device is enhanced, updates are pushed through, synchronized and performed en masse. While these software updates might help your mobile device to operate better, faster, or become more secure, you and millions of other users are little more than glorified guinea pigs. Until the software developer gets feedback from everyday users about issues and bugs, they don’t truly know what vulnerabilities exist.
The Trouble With Mobile Internet Accessibility
Here’s another reason mobile device users should be careful about how they access their accounts while going about their daily lives – mobile internet accessibility. Mobile device users have to either provide their own internet access or use Wi-Fi to connect the web. So, if you are at a coffee shop or a hotel lobby that offers free internet, your mobile device is probably going to be set up to automatically connect to hotspots as you move about. This means that convenient tools such as autofill on your mobile device are going to cause you to be a bit exposed. When you connect to each new hotspot, everything you do becomes viewable to the owner or administrator of the connection. This is where lots of mobile device related data breaches occur.
Logging In Everywhere You Go
The truth is that mobile device users are hopping from internet connection to internet connection, whether they are secure or not. All along the way, they will log into their email, make purchases, and connect to social media. The experts at Secure Forensics can investigate a data breach. This company can forensically examine mobile devices to see what data has been stolen and even find out how the breach occurred. The trouble comes when mobile devices are taken out of the home and connected to any number of mobile internet hubs.
There have been a frightening number of data breaches that have involved millions of internet users. These breaches are becoming more of a common occurrence, so all you can really do is protect yourself. If you are capable of using only secure web connections, please do so. Be careful about the networks you connect your mobile devices to and keep your passwords safe.
