We have already gone through a variety of common issues connected to the Internet and security. This time, we would like to focus on the problems with signal and delve deeper into the topic of unauthorised data access.
Signal Drop and Weak Signal
A drop and weak signals and their impact on the battery life, power management, and running apps have their own clues and most often some legit apps or signal issue is the reason, nothing fishy. In case, there is some issue, most often they will go unnoticed. The same goes for cellular signals, but this is also one of the clues that you might be under tower spoofing.
In case you or any other person is facing a low signal, even though the quality should be higher in the region, be absolutely suspicious of such an issue. Check with the carrier provider if they have any tower issues going on in your region. Start up a cell tower analyzer and start comparing the nearby signals with what you have seen previously and now, or use any third-party resources online.
If everybody or you come across any report of a sudden drop in the Wi-Fi quality where the signal was high, start investigating. See if you notice any network with strong signal strength and right SSID that used to be a plain dead spot. Chances are someone set up a WAP for some fishy reason.
Unauthorized Data Access
One of the things about securing data on mobile devices is, that it is quite difficult. I mean, think of this. Your company’s security guard can stop anyone from taking a whole desktop or any noticeable device from taking out. The same is quite not true for someone carrying a small device like a mobile device. Even if they did, there are hundreds of excuse one can easily come up with. In case you left your device somewhere until you notice it is gone, you can use the remote wipe, which can prevent anyone from accessing your data. But the thing is, as long as you have a chance to do so before it is too late.
Data leakage can occur in other ways, via removable mass storage like HDD, SSD, micro/miniSD cards, as well as the device’s operating system and programs. All the removable media that may contain sensitive data should be encrypted. This way no matter what, they won’t get to your data just like that if they plug it somewhere else. Some built-in settings like security and privacy settings on your device can protect personal data, and that setting can be configured for other apps and data as well.
There is one of the most apparent risks a network-accessed app can have is, that it may leak the data, intentionally or unintentionally. Most of cases it is hard to determine where the risk occurred. Sometimes you will be awestruck to find out that the loan that was sanctioned on your name by some cyber-criminal got your credentials not from you, or your machines, but your credentials that were stored in the bank or somewhere else.
This is why you should never take this matter lightly and always beware if you feel anything unusual happening inside any of your devices. In case the data is leaked you suspect, contact your local or online cyber-security firm or such for further investigation. Always enable multi-factor authentication and encrypt the data you feel is sensitive.