It’s a golden rule, but it’s one most of us always ignore or just don’t pay enough attention to, namely, setting a strong password for your many devices and accounts. In this day and age, and frankly for the best part of three decades, we use our mobiles and tablets for just about everything we do and in 2025, if you are not taking security seriously, then you are asking for trouble.
In 2023, the amount lost to cybercrime was an astonishing $12.5 billion, and you can expect that number to have climbed over the past two years, as we grow more and more dependent on our internet usage.
Most of us use our phones to access hugely important information and data, from checking out bank accounts to placing bets on sports betting apps, and if you have not set a safe password, then you are pretty much closing your front door without remembering to lock it.
With all this in mind, here are a few quick and easy steps that will go some way to making sure you are safe from any fraudulent activity.
Use a Strong Password
Resist the urge to set your password manually better instead to opt for the ‘strong password’ offered. While clearly these passwords are next to impossible to remember, which is pretty much the point, once they are set and saved to your phone, and therefore you don’t need to recall the fiddly multi-digit combination that is set.
Turn On Two-Step Verification
Be sure to set up two-step verification on your phone and apps, especially those that are most prone to serious risk from hackers. These may be banking apps, social media or indeed your email. By setting up a two-step verification, especially one that needs facial recognition, you are putting up a firm barrier to nefarious characters who want to steal your information.
Regularly Change Your Password
If you don’t wish to use the ‘strong password’ option when setting up passwords for accounts, be sure to change your chosen password regularly, once a month if possible, as doing so helps narrow the chances of being left open to cybercrime.
Install and Update Apps When Requested to Do So
Because sometimes the issues related to cybercrime may not stem from your phone but rather the apps that you use, you should be sure to update these as and when they are required. For instance, if an app you use has suffered a major data hack, or is fearful of such an attack, they will usually seek to update their apps and protect them accordingly, but if you have not updated the app on your phone, you will not be receiving the level of protection that may be needed.
Keep an Eye On Your Phones and Tablets
Mobile phone theft is a multi-billion-dollar issue and one that we have probably all suffered at some point in our lives. Often, these thefts of our mobiles or tablets have been in some way made easier by our being careless, so one way to stay ahead of such an event is to always be very vigilant about limiting the possibility of such a criminal act.
