6 Ways to Keep Your Mobile Phone Secure

Your smartphone is your constant companion, allowing you to conveniently keep in touch with family and friends, shop, bank, order takeout, and listen to your favorite music. The last thing you want is to lose the information you have stored on your smartphone — or worse, get hacked. Follow these six tips to keep your mobile phone secure.

1. Use a strong password, Touch ID, or Face ID

Controlling access to your smartphone is an essential part of protecting data. Make it harder for cyberthieves to open your phone by setting up a long, complex password — or by using a fingerprint or facial recognition system — for unlocking your phone.

For a secure mobile phone, your passcode should be at least six digits (preferably 12). A unique combination of letters, numbers, and symbols is ideal. If you have an iPhone, be sure to enable its data protection feature, which wipes all of your phone's data after 10 consecutive wrong attempts to enter the password.1 There are built-in delays until you can retry, starting with one minute after the fifth attempt and increasing to a full hour after the ninth attempt, giving you extra time to recall or retrieve the code if you've forgotten it.

2. Keep your operating system updated

Periodically your mobile phone company will create updates to its operating system (OS) to improve performance and fix any new security issues. If you want a secure smartphone, pay attention to these notification updates. The Federal Communications Commission offers several useful guidelines for installing OS updates and making sure your settings run properly after you do so.2

For instance, you should check that your phone is compatible with the upgrades, especially if you have an older model. After the installation, check your WiFi, privacy, and other settings to ensure your preferences haven't changed.

3. Back up your data regularly

Thieves and hackers aren't the only threat to your mobile phone's security. You also risk losing data if you don't have a backup system in place.

With an iPhone, you can either back up data to your computer using iTunes or back it up to the cloud using iCloud. The main drawback to computer backup versus iCloud backup is that you can lose the data if your computer crashes.3

Apple provides five gigabytes of free iCloud storage space for each of its devices, and you can purchase additional space if needed. If you have a huge amount of data — lots of images, music, apps, and the like — the iTunes computer backup route is probably your most affordable option.4

If you have an Android phone and signed up with your Google account when you first powered up, your device is equipped with Google's automatic backup system.5 Check the “backup & reset" section of your system settings to make sure the system is running and backing up data to your Google account.