As more news breaks about the leaking of nude photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and others, this has caused anyone who uses their smartphones and tablets to take photos and store other sensitive information to question the security of Apples iCloud and Google Drive.
We hope that the perpetrators that have broken the law are caught and punished.
What this has done, though, is put a question mark over the companies and their products, making users wonder if they can ever trust the claims of security and privacy of these products. However, it is not only celebrities and others in the public eye that face breaches of privacy, whether they be from hackers looking to steal photos, financial data or other sensitive information or documents. As we have seen all too many times, hackers target companies and banks as well. We remember Target and now, it seems, Home Depot has suffered a data breach.
While most of us are not celebrities, we should protect ourselves from data breaches like the celebrity photo leak.
Here a few steps you can take:
1. 2-Step Authentication – Also known as 2-Step Verification, this is a process that requires users to enter identifying data into two subsequent but dependent stages that will allow the user to enter into his or her account. Google’s 2-Step Verification is a good example.
2. Remote Wipe – If you are out and happen to lose your phone, or it was stole, it is easy to remote wipe it, thus disabling it. This will prevent any other person from accessing it and its contents. Apple’s iCloud and Google allow users to remote wipe iPhones and Androids respectively.
3. WiFi Network Connections – These days, our smartphones, tablets and laptops are always scouring for access to WiFi sources. However, there may be hackers who are sending out wireless access point connections that your device may automatically connect to, which then allows hackers to access any of the data you send, whether e-mails, texts, photos, etc. We don’t give a second thought to our WiFi connections in our constantly wireless connected environment that we all want, but we should be cautious.
Of course, the easiest way to avoid anyone hacking into your device is to simply not digitize it.
