How Safe Are Your Mobile Apps?

Making a purchase from your smartphone feels like truly living in the 21^stcentury. While we don’t yet have flying cars and timeshares on the moon, having the power to manage your finances in the palm of your hand is a revolutionary concept.

Linking your phone with your financial information is an increasingly popular way to let money change hands—whether it’s paying back a friend for covering your movie ticket, paying your DSTV subscriptions or making a purchase from the Web. Where once the major concern was losing your wallet with ATM cards, now, losing a non-password protected phone may deliver even more serious results, since it potentially contains so much more information.

While security is one of the primary concerns of providing financial access from a mobile device, having your information in your pocket potentially can go wrong. How can you maximize the security of your information on your smartphone? There are a few ways you can educate yourself on how to make mobile finance and mobile payments even safer:

Options to explore now:

• Educate yourself on the safety features of your specific device. Two-factor authentication, screen locks, password protections and more can secure not only the device, but also the information within it. The information within a device can stay more secure and private with at least a few of these safeguards in place when it falls into the wrong hands.
• Keep tabs on it. Keeping your smartphone handy means it’s less likely to be taken than if it’s out of your possession—like left on the table of a restaurant or in a cab. If you do decide to leave it behind, make sure you do so in a secured location like a safe where it’s not only hidden from view, but protected.
• Know what your carrier offers. Data access features often vary according to your service provider’s options.  Knowing the services that they provide in the case of a lost or stolen device can help you plan a response when you notice that your phone’s gone missing. They may be able to freeze your information or wipe the device remotely when you notify them your device is unaccounted for.


After your phone goes missing:
• If your phone is lost or stolen, don’t wait to take action. For apps that link to an online presence (like a phone service provider or a banking institution), log in on your desktop immediately and change your password. De-link the phone to your account, and track it carefully over at least the next few days for any suspicious activity.
• Reach out to financial partners. If you use apps on your phone to make purchases with linked credit cards, check your billing statements carefully to ensure that there are no unrecognized charges. If you notice any suspicious activity, contact the merchant immediately to let them know that you didn’t make the charge. You may also want to let your credit card company know of the security breach, too. This way, they can help address any further fraudulent activity on the card.
• Track the phone after it’s out of your hands. Is it still possible to track your phone or protect your information after your device is lost or stolen? Now more than ever, thanks to advanced safety features, you may be able to enable GPS tracking on your device as a feature of your phone, or as an after-market app. You may also be able to remotely wipe your information as soon as you request it to, meaning that if your device backs up to cloud storage, you’ll have a secure copy of your information that’s not in the hands of the thief.
• Contact the authorities. You may also want to file a police report so that criminal charges can be filed. With GPS tracking and a remote wipe enabled, your device has a higher likelihood of being recovered by police forces with your information protected, and a criminal apprehended.
Even if you've never lost or had a mobile device stolen, take a few moments today to familiarize yourself with the ways you can protect your information on your smartphone. At a time where phones are ever more valuable sources of personal information, you’ll be glad you did.