How do you secure your phone?

IceDigger

IceDigger

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Feb 22, 2001
Messages
12,089
What are your best practices for securing your phone?

Android, iOS, Winphone, BB?
 
You will never secure a phone, and for that reason don't leave stuff on it that needs securing.
 
Got nudes on my phone. Can't stand entering some password, no password here.
 
Pocket.

Otherwise swype pin on Android. Not 100%, but should give me enough time to shut it down. I dont have anything on my phone that is that critical.
 
longblock454 said:
By not having one, tossed my cell phone in the trash a few years ago.
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Was waiting for this, lol. Why post?

f07.jpg


Big gubment, and China tapping your land line and backing your PC up nightly anyways. Think you really have any privacy otherwise? :p

I use face/pattern unlock (weak, I know) and my phone never leaves my sight anyways. I also use Cerberus, which can do anything I want to the phone remotely should it ever get lost, including backing up and wiping the phone.
 
PIN, encrypted device, and my phone is always on my person. I never leave it laying around. I even hate it when my wife uses it, but that's mainly because I see how she treats her phones and don't want to have to replace mine due to a cracked screen. ;)
 
Enable internal and SD card encryption, use a pattern lock, enable Google Android Device Management to remotely alarm/lock/wipe and sync data/files to cloud.
 
No one who steals your phone cares about your data unless you are an AAA list celebrity. They only care about the hardware.

Physical access to hardware=root access to hardware.
 
Skripka said:
No one who steals your phone cares about your data unless you are an AAA list celebrity. They only care about the hardware.

Physical access to hardware=root access to hardware.
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Please show me how criminals can either unlock my phone or gain root access to my TouchID and Activation Lock protected iPhone. The phone is dead to them and only good for parts.
 
TouchID doesn't matter and iOS shouldn't even be listed next to the others since people's private nude pics were shared to the world.
 
ocellaris said:
Please show me how criminals can either unlock my phone or gain root access to my TouchID and Activation Lock protected iPhone. The phone is dead to them and only good for parts.
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Does that fact matter?

It won't stop your phone from being stolen. It won't get your phone back either.
 
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mi7chy said:
TouchID doesn't matter and iOS shouldn't even be listed next to the others since people's private nude pics were shared to the world.
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Yeah because the people who obtained those leaks got them from the users' iPhones right? They were like "hey jay low, lemme borrow your phone for 10 minutes, I won't steal your noods lawls".

:rolleyes:
 
sonicboom said:
You will never secure a phone, and for that reason don't leave stuff on it that needs securing.
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Gotta call this out. People frequently need sensitive data on their phones for work, and it's virtually impossible to completely avoid carrying valuable personal info if you like such radical concepts as "a contact list" and "email." It's better to do the best job you can securing that data than to pretend you're safe by using a basic phone and memorizing all your phone numbers.
 
CHANG3D said:
Funny in Android is that a large number of us could only get security holes patched up by rooting our phones and uninstalling custom roms...

http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/27/android-stagefright-mms-video-exploit/
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Yeah it is a nasty little exploit. I'm interested to see if they out the entire exploit or not next month. There's also no information about how it is triggered exactly. Do you have to open the MMS? Does it fire automatically in apps like Hangouts since they can pre-fetch (if enabled) the data? How hard is it to actually craft the video to make it an exploit? This feels more like hype machine honestly with the way it was announced with fanfare. That's not to say it isn't a very nasty exploit but it just feels like it's being blown out of proportion now because when the facts are released everybody is going to go "meh".

Google patched it nice and fast but an exploit like this really shows how little the OEM's and carriers care about their customers. Most devices will never see a patch for this exploit before it is shown to the world next month while others simply will never see a patch.

This also shows two keys differences between Google and Apple and their eco-systems.

1. Apple doesn't give two shits about security (we already knew this though). They still haven't patched the XARA exploit completely and it only took them 6 months and then being beat over the head after the exploit was fully outed to care enough to patch it. Google patched and pushed the code that fixed this pretty damn quick. It's already there in some revision of 5.1.1. Issue now is what I mentioned above about the OEM's and carriers.

2. Shows how much easier it is for iOS to get patches out there. Most Nexus devices won't get the OTA directly from Google, unless you bought it from the Play Store, meaning you still have to wait on the carriers.
 
The combination of icloud and Russians.....best thing to ever happen to men wanting to see nudes
 
Vermillion said:
Yeah it is a nasty little exploit. I'm interested to see if they out the entire exploit or not next month. There's also no information about how it is triggered exactly. Do you have to open the MMS? Does it fire automatically in apps like Hangouts since they can pre-fetch (if enabled) the data? How hard is it to actually craft the video to make it an exploit? This feels more like hype machine honestly with the way it was announced with fanfare. That's not to say it isn't a very nasty exploit but it just feels like it's being blown out of proportion now because when the facts are released everybody is going to go "meh".

Google patched it nice and fast but an exploit like this really shows how little the OEM's and carriers care about their customers. Most devices will never see a patch for this exploit before it is shown to the world next month while others simply will never see a patch.
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They've explained that the attack varies depending on your app. If you're using the stock Android app (Messenger), it won't happen unless you view the message. However, Hangouts' pre-fetch will compromise you the moment the message hits.

It's a security firm's hype, to be sure, but Google does consider it a high-priority problem. This isn't just an attempt to scare you into buying antivirus software. It's just a shame that Android's nature means that most people won't get the fix until they replace their phones.
 
Aurelius said:
They've explained that the attack varies depending on your app. If you're using the stock Android app (Messenger), it won't happen unless you view the message. However, Hangouts' pre-fetch will compromise you the moment the message hits.

It's a security firm's hype, to be sure, but Google does consider it a high-priority problem. This isn't just an attempt to scare you into buying antivirus software. It's just a shame that Android's nature means that most people won't get the fix until they replace their phones.
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Yeah I saw the confirmation about the pre-fetch vs opening the MMS in a later article. Hadn't read that before my earlier post.

Definitely a big issue. Big question now is do they publish everything publicly next month even though they know OEMs/Carriers won't have the patches out in a timely manner if at all?

This is one of those times I hope they show it but don't give it to the public.

IceDigger said:
Is Google stealing your stuff?

Don't trust em.
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WTF are you talking about?
 
By not running Android. Lulz. (This part is meant for all the angry fanboys)

Honestly though I've never run anything other than a PIN or since the 5S, TouchID (requires a password as well).
 
Face unlock, that and my phone is so old, no one would want to steal it. I also don't use apps that requires an account to use (except Pandora) so there is nothing to steal but names and numbers, which I keep backed up online and I wouldn't care if anyone saw them.
 
iPhone, finger print

longblock454 said:
I don't have a landline either..
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Who has a landline besides grandparents and businesses these days?

mi7chy said:
TouchID doesn't matter and iOS shouldn't even be listed next to the others since people's private nude pics were shared to the world.
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That was a brute force issue.

And, since it always seems like you're angry about those nudes getting leaked, I've got some really bad news for you.
 
Fingerprint plus password, encrypt the device, keep it in my pocket.
 
Aside from the obvious physical protections like being passcoded/using touch ID, having Find My IPhone enabled, and never leaving it in a place where it could be stolen, I have the app for my VPN on my phone. Anytime I go in wifi I usually switch it on. It's PIA.
 
CHANG3D said:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/05/android-fingerprint-readers-may-be-easier-to-hack-than-touch-id/
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Doesn't surprise me in the least simply because the fingerprint reader code is slapped on top of AOSP by the OEMs. Previous security researchers have show how many exploits the code for things like Sense and TouchWiz add so this really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.

What would be interesting to know is can this be exploited on Android M which officially adds fingerprint scanning support to Android?
 
Android M will likely be significantly better, but the proof's in the pudding, of course.

Also, remember how some tried to paint the iPhone's Touch ID as horribly flawed because a thief could theoretically create a fake finger... and then it turned out that numerous Android phones (including the Galaxy S5/S6) were not only susceptible to the same technique, but were vulnerable to a remote attack that simply isn't possible on the iPhone? Good times.
 
Some? Don't you mean just one TTL?

I wonder how Samsung could implement its monthly security update with the carriers, especially Verizon, getting in the way? (I'm going to guess Sprint will be first to get the updates)
 
Posting a link doesn't make you less clueless in security matters. If you had a clue you'd know that fingerprint alone is for convenience and not for security and that companies disable it on laptops/tablets that have fingerprint sensor of the swipe kind like on Lenovo. If it does get enabled it's used as part of a multifactor authentication along with password and/or token.
 
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