How to Avoid Common Election Scams | McAfee Blog

All day long, it’s almost always within arm’s reach. Your smartphone. And we rely on it plenty. That makes securing your phone so important. Good thing that some of the best tips for making your phone safer are also some of the easiest too.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Ten quick tips for mobile security

Locking your phone is one of the most basic smartphone security measures you can take. The trouble is, few of us do it. Our recent global research showed that only 56% of adults said that they protect their smartphone with a password, passcode, or other form of lock.[i] In effect, an unlocked phone is an open book to anyone who finds or steals a phone.

Setting up a lock screen is easy. It’s a simple feature found on iOS and Android devices. iPhones and Androids have an auto-lock feature that locks your phone after a certain period of inactivity. Keep this time on the low end, one minute or less, to help prevent unauthorized access.

We suggest using a six-digit PIN or passcode rather than using a gesture to unlock your phone. They’re more complex and secure. Researchers proved as much with a little “shoulder surfing” test. They looked at how well one group of subjects could unlock a phone after observing the way another group of subjects unlocked it.[ii]

• Turn on “Find My Phone.”

Another powerful tool you have at your disposal is the Find My Phone feature made possible thanks to GPS technology. The “find my” feature can help you pinpoint your phone if your lost or stolen phone has an active data or Wi-Fi connection and has its GPS location services enabled. Even if the phone gets powered down or loses its connection, it can guide you to its last known location.

Setting up this feature is easy. Apple offers a comprehensive web page on how to enable and use their “Find My” feature for phones (and other devices too). Android users can get a step-by-step walkthrough on Google’s Android support page as well.

• Learn how to remotely track, lock, or erase your phone.

In the event of your phone getting lost or stolen, a combination of device tracking, device locking, and remote erasing can help protect your phone and the data on it.

Different device manufacturers have different ways of going about it. But the result is the same — you can prevent others from using your phone, and even erase it if you’re truly worried that it’s in the wrong hands or gone for good. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.

• Back up your stuff in the cloud.

Thanks to cloud storage, you might be able to recover your photos, files, apps, notes, contact info, and more if your phone is lost or stolen. Android owners can learn how to set up cloud backup with Google Drive here, and iPhone users can learn the same for iCloud here.

• Update your phone’s operating system and apps.

Keep your phone’s operating system up to date. Updates can fix vulnerabilities that hackers rely on to pull off their malware-based attacks — it’s another tried-and-true method of keeping yourself safer and your phone running great too.

The same goes for the apps on your phone. Ideally, set them up to update automatically so that you don’t have to take extra time to do it yourself. Also, look for opportunities to delete old apps and any data linked with them. Fewer apps on your phone means fewer vulnerabilities. And less data in fewer places can reduce your exposure to data breaches.

• Stick with official app stores.

Legitimate app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store have measures in place that help ensure that apps are safe and secure. And for the malicious apps that sneak past these processes, Google and Apple are quick to remove them once discovered, making their stores that much safer. Meanwhile, third-party app stores might not have these measures in place. Further, they might be a front for hackers looking to spread mobile malware through malicious apps.

• Go with a strong app recommendation.

Yet better than combing through user reviews yourself is getting a recommendation from a trusted source, like a well-known publication or from app store editors themselves. In this case, much of the vetting work has been done for you by an established reviewer. A quick online search like “best fitness apps” or “best apps for travelers” should turn up articles from legitimate sites that can suggest good options and describe them in detail before you download.

That’s not to say that you should overlook user reviews. Certainly, legitimate reviews can be a big help. Look closely at the listing, though. Check out the developer’s track record. Have they published several other apps with many downloads and good reviews? A legit app typically has quite a few reviews, whereas malicious apps may have only a handful of (phony) five-star reviews. Lastly, look for typos and poor grammar in both the app description and screenshots. They could be a sign that a hacker slapped the app together and quickly deployed it.

• Keep an eye on app permissions.

Another way hackers weasel their way into your device is by getting permissions to access things like your location, contacts, and photos — and they’ll use sketchy apps to do it. So check and see what permissions the app is requesting. If it’s asking for way more than you bargained for, like a simple game wanting access to your camera or microphone, it might be a scam.

Delete the app and find a legitimate one that doesn’t ask for invasive permissions. If you’re curious about permissions for apps that are already on your phone, iPhone users can learn how to allow or revoke app permission here, and Android can do the same here.

• Spot scam texts and their bad links.

Scam texts seem like an unfortunate fact of life. Scammers can blast thousands of phones with texts that contain links to phishing sites and to others that host malware. Our Text Scam Detector puts a stop to scams before you click — detecting any suspicious links and sending you an alert. And if you accidentally tap that bad link, it can still block the site for you.

• Protect your smartphone with security software.

With all that we do on our phones, it’s important to get security software installed on them, just like we install it on our computers and laptops. Whether you go with comprehensive online protection software that secures all your devices or pick up an app in Google Play or Apple’s App Store, you’ll have malware, web, and device security that’ll help you stay safe on your phone.

[i] https://www.mcafee.com/content/dam/consumer/en-us/docs/reports/rp-connected-family-study-2022-global.pdf

[ii] https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.04959