“Today, information, whether personal or business, is one of the main objectives of cybercriminals because of the value it has and represents, because when they take possession of it, they can extort money from their victims, request monetary rewards or simply sell it on the internet. Deep Web”, says Francisco Fernández, general manager of AVANTIC.
More and more users in Chile are adding to the use of smartphones or smart phones, and to the benefits provided by technologies such as 3G, 4G and 5G.
As early as September 2020, SUBTEL reported that in our country there were 19.8 million mobile connections, an amount that – without a doubt – should increase thanks to the recent entry into operation of the fifth generation of mobile networks, so essential for the development of concepts such as Smart Cities, the Internet of Things and the Metaverse, among others.
Faced with the largest number of users of such devices, from the company AVANTIC [1] They state that it is essential to know how to protect computers and their stored content, since cybercriminals use different methods every day to access them.
“Some of these paths are Social Engineering and downloads from unofficial sites of software that contain Trojans and backdoors, which – without the person realizing it – install applications that allow an attacker to take control of the devices and have access to all the information stored in them”, says Francisco Fernández, general manager of AVANTIC.
The executive explains that although Android, by its nature, is more prone to this type of attack, Apple is not free of them either, since there are users who perform Jailbreaks to download other software, that is, they “free” the IOS Operating System of the security and commercial restrictions imposed by the manufacturer.
“So the above makes it possible to download other applications not available in the Apple Store, but in turn more insecure, since it is unknown who is behind its development,” adds Fernández.
How to protect yourself
In this sense, the expert gave a series of recommendations to take care of smartphones, and the information stored in them, against the various existing cyberthreats:
1. Always keep an eye on your phone. Remember that it only takes a few seconds of distraction for someone to steal it or copy a malicious app onto your device. According to statistics, behind these attacks there is always someone close.
2. Pay attention to the links and files you receive on your phone through instant messaging, email and social networking applications.
3. Worry about checking what applications you have installed, the permissions they have and if they have a purpose for being on your cell phone. That is, are you sure you installed them? If not, uninstall them.
4. Never install unknown apps. Consequently, it is recommended to only download applications from the Play Store or Apple Store, that is, from the official Android and Apple sites.
5. Never download any application that promises extraordinary functions, because it is possible that it is a malicious file that contains trojans or backdoors (back doors to take control of your device, including the camera).
6. Keep an updated antimalware on your cell phone, as there are malicious files that could be undetectable by human or visual inspection.
7. Be careful what you keep on your computer. Do not store sensitive information such as photos of credit cards, identity cards, passports, etc.
8. Make regular backups of the information on your phone, either in the cloud or on physical storage media.
“Today, information, whether personal or business, is one of the main objectives of cybercriminals because of the value it has and represents, because when they take possession of it, they can extort money from their victims, request monetary rewards or simply sell it on the internet. Deep Web”, expresses the general manager of AVANTIC.