One of the most important things to be diligent about in today’s tech-driven world is keeping your data safe and protecting yourself.
These days, there is a lot of great tech safety procedures and features out there, but they can’t necessarily protect you from everything. Plus, some smartphones don’t automatically come with those features turned on, and your device won’t benefit from them right away. Using information from tech experts, we’re listing two iPhone settings you should adjust in order to keep your data safe. Read more about them below.
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1. Enable & Set Up A Passcode
Believe it or not, there are a lot of iPhone users who walk around without a passcode set up on their device. These are often people who worry they might not remember their passcode or find it more convenient to simply open their phone once they pick it up. Though it's convenient, it's also unsafe.
"The number one best thing you can do to secure your phone is to enable your passcode and FaceID - it might seem inconvenient, but if you don't, you are leaving a great feature of the iPhone unused, and that is full disk encryption on a non-default key," explains data privacy lawyer Alia Luria. "Your iPhone will always encrypt the disk, but if you don't enable a passcode, it will use a default key, which is essentially like offering up the password 'password' to hackers. Enable a 6-digit passcode for better security."
2. Turn Off Auto-Join For Wi-Fi
One of the biggest risks that people take when they're out and about with their iPhones or other devices like laptops is public Wi-Fi. Though it's nice to use the internet wherever you want, public Wi-Fi comes with a lot of safety risks, and there can be a lot of untrustworthy networks, which is also why you should make sure your phone's not automatically connecting to them.
"Public Wi-Fi networks, especially in airports, diners, or hotels, are extremely easy to exploit," says cybersecurity pro Wes Anderson. "Attackers can intercept unencrypted traffic or impersonate legitimate networks to steal login credentials. Using a trusted VPN or relying on your cellular connection instead significantly reduces the attack surface. I'd avoid logging in to my bank or other high-risk platforms in those situations if I can wait until I return home."
