Surveillance by mobile applications. Which systems protect us most effectively?

The risk of private data theft is a daily reality for every internet user. Spyware is like a silent and extremely clever saboteur – it takes advantage of our inattention and sometimes insecurity to attack, in the blink of an eye taking information from us that we certainly would not want to give to the wrong hands. What’s more, we may not notice the actions of this digital spy for a long time – meanwhile, it persistently and diligently works, gathering valuable resources directly from our device. As the owner of a smartphone, it is difficult to talk about being one hundred percent immune to the temptations of cybercriminals. Therefore, it is worth knowing what to do to defend yourself against them as effectively as possible.

Security in the network – reality or utopia?

Modern technologies, especially the ubiquitous smartphones, are an integral part of everyone’s life. Mobile devices organize our daily life, help us connect to the world, facilitate and often even enable work or study, and are the center of entertainment. We use them to pay bills, make multiple transfers, conduct transactions and corporate calls. Most of us have long since gotten used to the fact that in the memory of these little boxes (or actually in the Internet, because nowadays everything functions on the basis of the net) we store entire libraries of the most important information, such as: private photos and films, messages from loved ones, business partners and co-workers, contact details and passwords necessary to log into banks, stores, company accounts, etc. It’s truly our little Fort Knox being a glutton for the aforementioned cyber thieves.

Considering all the activities we do via mobile devices, it’s important to remember that when browsing the web and using various apps, we’re never 100 percent safe (let alone anonymous). Wherever we go in cyberspace, cookies collect information about our habits. This helps to tailor ads to our preferences and thus to sell us things we often don’t need. However, cookies are a minor problem (if you can call them a problem at all). The biggest vacuum cleaner of very important data are applications, to which almost every day (often without a shadow of a thought) we open wide the door to our contacts, camera or folders with multimedia (photos, movies, etc.).

We can be very careless in granting access to our devices. First on the long list of sins committed by users of mobile devices and applications is proudly clicking on links on suspicious sites or in emails or text messages. Nowadays the real scourge are fake links redirecting to websites pretending to be platforms of banking services, courier services or e-shops where we do our shopping. Usually, under the pretext of password expiration or the need to complete the data, they ask us for login and password, and when they get them, they can cause us a lot of trouble.

One of the methods used by cyber criminals is locking phones or computers to get ransom from the owner. It is also very common to collect SMS messages to look for one-time passwords for online banking. And these are just two of many examples.

Mobile device surveillance – can it be avoided?

The answer to such a question could be succinctly – both yes and no. After all, we are all aware of the fact that when we use the Internet, including mobile applications, we are under constant surveillance from Big Brother (that is, bigtechs, cybercorp and minor players who live off our online activity). This doesn’t always mean something bad – in most cases, it’s about delivering personalized ads or other types of commercial information to us. You can live with that.

Nevertheless, if we want to be sure of our safety, we should try to get a good antivirus program. In the era of constant monitoring such a guard is indispensable as a sheriff in the city of lawlessness. Also when using social media we should be careful. We recommend using overlays such as Ghostery, AdBlock and Facebook Purity – they limit the possibility of spying on us as users and at the same time allow us to personalize social media settings (especially Facebook Purity).

We also refer to such websites as Niebezpiecznik.pl, Spidersweb.pl, or Panoptykon.org – these are reliable sources of knowledge on the latest threats lurking in the web, run by real experts.

Let’s be vigilant!

Although the war with cyber criminals will probably never end, it is worth knowing that we are not defenseless in it. Our basic weapons are vigilance, knowledge about potential threats (yes, it is worth reading and staying up to date!) and decent programs to protect our data.

If you want to find out what we can offer you in terms of personal data security – please contact us. We will be happy to propose solutions that will be optimal for the implementation of your project.