Chapter 30
Lock the device itself
What you'll get from this chapter: The phone settings that close the most common way in: app sources, permissions, updates, passcodes, remote wipe, and safe charging.
In this chapter
- Words in this chapter
- Your steps
The usual way into a phone is still a person who is persuaded to tap a link or install an application. The settings below close that door.
Install apps only from the Apple App Store or Google Play. In 2024 Google stopped 2.36 million apps that broke its rules from being published on Google Play.¹ Harmful software still gets through, including apps that read the screenshots in your photo gallery to steal crypto .² A flashlight app does not need your contacts, camera, or location. On an iPhone, review each app in Settings. On Android, open Settings, then Privacy, then Permission manager. Leave Google Play Protect on: in the Play Store, tap your profile picture and confirm it is enabled. Do not install from a link in a text, do not jailbreak the phone (remove the manufacturer’s built-in protections), and do not trust an unknown .
Turn on automatic updates for the system and for applications. Lock the phone with a passcode of at least six digits plus , which means your face or fingerprint, and turn on so a lost phone can be erased from a browser. Add a second passcode inside banking and password-manager applications. Make an encrypted backup and confirm you know how to restore it.
Public charging ports can be more than power. means a USB (universal serial bus) charging port that has been rigged to install software or copy data while the phone charges. Use your own cable and a wall outlet, not a public kiosk port.
That completes the playbook. If something has already gone wrong, the final chapter, If You Are Hit, tells you exactly what to do next.
Words in this chapter
- . A public charging port that is altered to install or copy data while a phone charges.
- . A setting that lets you erase a lost or stolen phone from another computer or from the manufacturer’s website.
- . Using your face or fingerprint to unlock a device. Useful, and still paired with a long passcode in case the biometric fails.
- Malware. Software written to harm the device or to steal from the person using it. Viruses, , and are types of malware.
Your steps
Sources
¹ Google, "How we kept the Google Play & Android app ecosystems safe in 2024" (January 29, 2025). https://blog.google/security/how-we-kept-google-play-android-app-ecosystem-safe-2024/
² Kaspersky Securelist, "SparkCat crypto stealer in Google Play and App Store" (February 5, 2025). https://securelist.com/sparkcat-stealer-in-app-store-and-google-play/115385/