We are no longer used to it. We even take it to bed with us. He sits there, staring, on the bedside table. Strictly lit. Because at the beginning, that is, about fifteen years ago when smartphones began to undermine simple cell phones, we said to ourselves “you never know, maybe someone needs it at night”. Then not even that. Now it’s convenience or habit. Or even laziness: we wake up and the first thing we do is reach out, take the iPhone (or that chi for him) and see what time it is. It’s not even an alarm clock.
Well, no. But not because it isn’t its function or one of those psycho-pseudo-radicalchic tirades (like “the cell phone in the bedroom disturbs your sleep if nothing else”). No, because it is a safety issue. Word of the NSA, the National Security Agency, the US National Security Agency: a little intelligence, a little counter-espionage, a little data collection and analysis, a lot of monitoring.
The NSA has just released a document which can be summarized in a handful of rules (several of which are already known) that can save our device. From the bad guys, from the professional scammers, from the hackers on Sundays and from those who also do virtual swindles on the other days of the week, from the crafty people involved in electronic blackmail. Good practices. Nothing to do with etiquette, everything to do with safeguarding (privacy and more).
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THE TIPS
So off you go, pen and paper (or notepad active on the screen): the first tip/trick/suggestion is to turn off this blessed cell phone, at least once a week. There is no difference whether you use Android or iOS, but each smartphone should not remain operational for more than 168 consecutive hours (which is, in fact, seven days). The reason? A simple reboot, a very quick, easy operation, helps defend against some cyber attacks such as the so-called “zero-day exploits”.
Those (small or not) flaws in the software or devices themselves that are discovered (and there are some) before the criminals of the www than by the mobile phone manufacturers. “Zero-days” indicates precisely that, i.e. the days (not even one) that the developers have to create a defense update. And in the meantime, you get screwed. By turning it off and on again, however, a (possible) sending of information is interrupted, perhaps in a flow, i.e. without realizing it and continuously.
Furthermore: it would be appropriate to deactivate Bluetooth, NFC and GPS when they are not used; not to use public wi-fi without VPN (aka that virtual private network that uses an encrypted system to protect an internet connection from unauthorized access); to regularly update devices (which is not just a way to keep up with the times and up to date with the latest technological innovations); and to choose effective passwords.
Not even your own day of birth, since the movie has been the first time you try to unlock someone else’s cell phone: the NSA specifies that a 6-digit pin is sufficient if the smartphone locks after ten failed attempts and that the systems of biometric recognition (such as face or fingerprint scanning), which were once the stuff of science fiction or, at most, James Bond devilry, and instead today they are within everyone’s reach, they are among the safest systems ever . Finally, American security remembers that for everyone’s safety, connecting to public USB charging stations (in ports and airports, on trains, at petrol stations, in museums, there are them everywhere) is not the best choice.
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THE RISKS
They may seem like banal warnings (among them there is also the invitation not to install too many apps and in any case to use only the official ones, not to release sensitive information via messages, not to click on links of dubious origin, to use only trusted accessories better if they are original, to cover the camera when it is not in use) and yet they are not original at all.
Only on the other side of the Atlantic and only in the first nine months of 2023, according to a recent study, 20% more data would have been stolen from the clouds than in the past and global users who have suffered theft of private information have there were over 360 million. Remembering to turn off your smartphone for a few seconds (to turn it back on immediately afterwards) is not such a great effort if the risks are so high.
