I THINK MY MY SMART PHONE’S BEEN HIJACKED

Imagine picking up your smartphone to look at your Facebook page to check messages and it looks like you just added a lot of friends.  You start to read through the posts and you suddenly you realize you are in someone else’s Facebook profile. 

Or, your phone suddenly starts to act slow and there are apps open that you don't normally use.

Is it possible your phone has been hijacked?  The answer is maybe.

PROTECTION - THE BAD NEWS:

• Cybercreeps are getting smarter and are creating viruses to infect your cell phones. 
• There were an average of 30 cell phone viruses per month last year.  All were contained and damages were minimized.
• Cybercreeps created fake online banking software that looked legitimate.  Cell phone customers downloaded it and did what they thought was online banking until they realized their id and password had been stolen!

4 QUICK STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR PHONE AND YOUR TRANSACTIONS:

LOCK-BLOCK-PROTECT-DETECT

1.    Lock:  Always lock your phone using a password or PIN code

2.    Block:  For banking, download mobile apps only after checking with your financial institution to make sure you don’t load an imposter app

3.    Protect:  Set your phone to always prompt you for a password before software can be downloaded to it

4.    Detect:  Never assume that your voice calls are confidential – some countries have no encryption at all for cell conversations.  Calls on 3G or 4G will have more security so check your signal.

If you think your phone has been hijacked, call your phone vendor immediately.  Go to a computer that you trust and change all passwords to your accounts to try to minimize the creeps from taking over your accounts and your identity.

There are some virus software packages that you can purchase to add more protection to your phone if you are concerned.  Some examples include F-Secure or Sophos.  To learn more about these options, there was a recent review posted on the leading mobile software antivirus protection providers for 2012 posted at:  http://mobile-security-software-review.toptenreviews.com/