Mobile Networks and Cybersecurity: Protecting Data

The conditions of the 21st century provide for the frequent use of information technologies and gadgets. And one of the most common daily companions of every person is a mobile phone. Check the intersection of mobile network security, as well as how to protect your data in a connected world in the article below.

The connection between mobile networks and cybersecurity

Due to the rapid development of technology, phones began to perform many more functions, which made the life of users much easier. Now, using a modern mobile device, everyone can access the Internet, communicate in social networks and messengers, make online purchases, and even manage bank cards without going to a bank branch. However, there is also a dark side to the innovation progress – attackers who spread malware to infect devices and steal sensitive data. In this regard, the topic of phone security and the protection of confidential information of users is becoming more and more relevant.

Mobile networks have long become the center of our digital lives. We use them every day for both personal and business purposes. They allow us to keep in touch with loved ones through social networking applications, make payments through electronic banking, and help us earn money by providing access to business e-mail, searching for information on the Internet, making online purchases, and more.

Typically, phishing campaigns deployed via spam email use a variety of persuasive messages to trick the user into divulging passwords or credit card information. Some use scare tactics and try to trick users into thinking their personal data has been compromised, urging them to take immediate action to mitigate the damage.

How to protect your data in a connected world?

Journalists, and especially freelancers, often travel and carry with their mobile phones, laptops, and external media for storing information, which contains personal and work data. You need to be especially careful and cautious when crossing borders and at checkpoints where your devices can be checked or seized or even confiscated and, accordingly, access to the information stored on them.

It is highly recommended to follow the next steps for protecting your data in the connected world:

  • Optimize the location of access points by searching for points without signal coverage.
  • Improve wireless network planning and router deployment.
  • Find sources of signal interference.
  • Find areas with a weak signal or excessive coverage.
  • Explore nearby Wi-Fi networks.

If the phone is working, then the reason for poor communication may be a long distance to the nearest base station, a gap in the coverage of base stations, or network congestion. It could also be the phone itself. For example, if there is, a defect in the antenna or the device was damaged during a fall. Modern software developers for smartphones and tablets promise you to perfect uninterrupted communication anywhere in the world by installing a single application.

Improving mobile communication is actually not such a difficult task. Today, for this, there are quite different options for antennas, and repeaters that amplify the signal coming from the operator. Thus, you do not act on your smartphone or tablet but on electromagnetic waves that should reach them. There are many ways to protect a smartphone at the “internal” level. The most important of them, without a doubt, are timely updates of the operating system, the use of multi-factor authentication, and complex passwords.