3 Easy Steps to Improve your Cyber Security on your Mobile Device

I want to show you how you can make some relatively easy adjustments to your current
mobile phone habits to improve your cyber security. As we all know cyber attacks are only
becoming more frequent, this is even more true for mobile devices as they have become
ubiquitous to all college students. As with any security measures, everyone has to weigh the
amount of effort/ inconvenience with the level of security they desire. The more secure you
make something the more inconvenient it is to access.
The first step I want to tackle is your lock screen. It goes without saying that you need to
make sure your phone is locked, but what are you using now and could it be improved?
Generally speaking I would rank lock screen options from low to high as Pattern Lock, PIN,
Password, Face Scan, and Fingerprint. While Pattern Lock is the quickest and most repeatable
(outside of four repeating numbers for a PIN) it is also the least secure as a lurker could quickly
see the pattern you use or even make an educated guess off of the smudges on your phone
screen. PIN and Password are similar to me as they really depend on the complexity that you
use. It is human habit to meet the minimum length and complexity of the requirements given, so
if you go above and beyond those minimums you are safer. The top tier of lock screen options
are biometrics. These lockscreens use body measurements for identification, and are commonly
known as Face Scan and Fingerprint. These have gotten harder to fake but with the
advancement of hi-res photography very sophisticated hackers have been able to break into
phones. As it is more common to have a pic taken of your face than your fingerprint, I would put
Fingerprint as the highest level.
Now that you know the difference and the security level between the options I want you
to go to your phone and look at your options. Depending on your OS this could be slightly
different, but go to your Settings -> Lock Screen -> Screen Lock Type to see what is available.
I know this will be a hard habit to break, but if you are not using a combination of Biometric and
Password I would challenge you to give that a try and at the very least go one step higher than
your current level.
The second vulnerability I want to discuss is public wifi. Public wifi is a great thing that
allows you and everyone else to gain internet access all over the country and for this reason
makes it a dangerous place. Not only are there people who set up their own wifi with similar
names at public places to trick us but they will also attack those public wifis as most security
teams (if they have one) are too worried about the private internet and other issues to concern
themselves with any suspicious activity happening on their public wifi. If you are not in a trusted
location using a trusted network, meaning your home, you need to take measures to secure
your connection and any information that you're sending over the internet.

The best way to do this is to use a virtual private network or VPN. A VPN allows you to
establish a protected network on the private network. This does require you to use a separate
service and as such take a little more time and might slow some streaming capabilities but it is
really the only way to use public wifi. VPNs are a separate service and do require fees. Luckily
for JMU students JMU covers this for us through Pulse Secure. Pulse Secure is the application
that we have to use to access the library. You can use this application at any time, you can use
it right now and you wouldn’t even notice a difference to your internet experience. If you do not
have Pulse Secure or if you need a reminder ​here are the instructions​ thanks to JMU. I highly
recommend you use it when you are public spaces again and we are able to visit Starbucks and
airports again.
The last topic I want to cover is password hygiene. This all goes back to the top where I
said we, as humans, will always default to the minimum requirements. How many of you reading
this have a favorite password that is 8 characters long, has one capital letter, one number, and
one special character that you use for multiple if not a majority of your logins? We’ve all done it,
and I here to say stop, please stop. You know all about the hacks that happen across the
country, you have all gotten an email or a letter saying that your information has been
compromised and ignored it. Do you know that these hackers take this list of information and
sell it on the dark web to sophisticated threat actors who will try these login/password
combinations on hundreds of other sites? It is better for you to have simple different passwords
written down than to have one complex password for multiple sites.
The easiest answer to this problem is to use a dedicated password manager. These
applications will store and create randomly generated character strings to use as your
passwords and encrypt them for you. Now the downside. Not only do you need this application
but most need you to use Duo (or similar app) to access them. This is another layer of security
for your passwords and personal information, which is a good thing but does take more time.
There are multiple free password managers out there, they have differences and you
can find many that will allow you to store unlimited passwords on them. ​Last Pass​ has a free
version that will allow you to use these passwords across all your devices. This is not an
endorsement for Last Pass, as I use a different application called ​Dashlane​. Last Pass is very
highly rated and the best free app I could find, but the additional features in the paid version of
Dashlane is what I wanted.These apps, once you have logged in, will autofill your logins and
personal information similarly to your browser autofill but with a substantially more secure back
end. I’d like you to consider using a password manager, go to the ​How It Works​ page on Last
Pass and read through a more detailed list of benefits of password managers in general.
With the implementation of these three steps you will exponentially increase your cyber
security posture.This need can not be overstated as we are carrying more information around in
our hands then was ever previously perceived possible.