The government hack of an iPhone used by a San Bernardino killer serves as a reminder that phones and other electronic devices aren’t impenetrable vaults.
While most people aren’t targets of the NSA, FBI or a foreign government, hackers are looking to steal the financial and personal information of ordinary people. Your phone stores more than just selfies. Your email account on the phone, for instance, is a gateway to resetting banking and other sensitive passwords.
Like washing your hands and brushing your teeth, a little “cyber hygiene” can go a long way toward preventing disaster.
LOCK YOUR PHONE WITH A PASSCODE
Failing to do so is like leaving your front door unlocked.
A four-digit passcode and an accompanying self destruct feature that might wipe a phone’s data after too many wrong guesses - stumped the FBI for weeks and forced them to bring in outside help. Using six digits makes a passcode 100 times harder to guess. And if you want to make it even harder, you can add letters and other characters to further increase the number of possible combinations. These are options on both iPhones and Android.
The iPhone’s self destruct feature is something you must turn on in the settings, under Touch ID & Passcode. Do so, and the phone wipes itself clean after 10 failed attempts. But the 10 attempts apply to your guesses, too, if you forget your passcode, or if your kids start randomly punching in numbers. Android has a similar feature.
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