6 Safety Steps To Making Secure Mobile Transactions

Mobile devices and smartphones are still new ideas in the tech community. Compared to home computers and laptops, the common mobile smartphone has only been around for a couple of years now. But having quickly grown to popularity, there are more early adopters now than we have ever seen before.

And this leads into an interesting area of discussion on mobile payments online. More specifically how can you be secure when purchasing things on your mobile devices? I want to offer some tips and ideas for going about purchasing anything on your smartphone or tablet PC. Mobile devices can often be less secure than computers within your own home network.

There is also the possibility of running into bugs in the mobile app or website. Security for mobile phones has been advancing tremendously, but has yet to hit a peak. I will be eagerly watching security trends as they unfold over the next few years. But in the meantime here are some tips you can follow to make sure you are protected when purchasing on a mobile platform.

Download Apps From Trustworthy Sources

We could assume this goes without saying, but obviously this is relatable advice. Downloading 3rd party applications from other areas outside the App Store is a very risky decision.

Alternatives like the Cydia App Store do not have the same credibility as Apple or Google. This is much easier using Android; with iOS devices, they are mostly locked to App Store downloads unless jailbroken. You will have to go through quite a bit of work to get alternative apps installed onto your system. But when in doubt, always check your favorite App Store for a native solution created by the company.

(Image Source: thetechblock.com)

One quick example I can think of is Best Buy. The store does have a mobile website which you can access using your mobile browser of choice. But using it you need to transfer data over the Web via browser inputs. Using a native application you are limited to their backend user interface. This is often a more secure method than accessing websites via Mobile Safari.

So if you are ever in the mood to shop on your phone, check out the App Store first and see if you can locate a native app. These are usually more secure and less buggy than mobile websites. Plus you should still have access to all the major shopping products and categories.

Check App Reviews And Ratings

While inside the App Store you shouldn’t just download the first option you see. There can sometimes be other third-party developers who will create apps tied to online stores yet are not exactly affiliated. This is a rare occurrence, but luckily you can quickly determine where all the high-quality trustworthy applications can be found.

In the listings page you will notice each application has a rating mark. The chart ranges from half star all the way up to five full stars. Along with the actual user rating you can also see how many people have voted, along with some of their reviews. The written content is often much more helpful than a star rating because you can get real human feedback. Don’t be afraid of checking the app reviews before downloading and possibly purchasing items through their software.

Protect Your Mobile Devices With Passwords

Some people feel really uncomfortable setting up passwords to lock their phone or tablet. If you are somebody who is forgetful then this may not be a great solution. And of course this will not protect much against somebody snooping over data packets in your Wi-Fi Internet.

(Image Source: Blu3 1ndigo)

However the best protection against somebody gaining access to your accounts from your phone is by using a device password. This means whenever somebody goes to open your iPhone or Android it will require a passcode before unlocking. This is a great solution if you are often out moving around and traveling with your devices.

Accidents do happen and people lose their phones all the time. It would be an even more dangerous situation if your phone had direct access into your bank accounts and online shopping carts. It may be possible to lock specific applications as well, but this may prove more convoluted than useful.

Send Data Over A Secure Internet Connection

I cannot stress enough that whenever you are purchasing things or transferring money online,always do this over a secure connection. One of the easiest ways for people to get your password(s) is by accessing your device IP on a public Wi-Fi network.

I can’t speak about the 3G network because I have never looked into how data is passed from device to server. I would imagine it is encrypted in a similar way, but I can say for certain that a 256-bit WEP wi-fi connection would be more secure. I would imagine that any data transfer out of a private network is going to be slightly less guarded, especially with many various devices all accessing the same bandwidth.

Mobile hotspots are not the gathering place for hackers or identity thieves. It just so happens that transferring your personal information over a public Internet connection is just a bad idea. Perhaps risking a login to your Facebook or Twitter is much more realistic. If anyone gains access to your social profiles, you will not be risking the loss of your personal finances & assets!

Check Mobile Websites For HTTPS

I will admit there are some situations where you simply must go through the mobile web interface. When you have no apps to download in the App Store and cannot wait until you have access to a computer then mobile shopping is the way to go.

When you first load up any website in your browser always check for the secure HTTPS connection. This will guarantee that any data passed between your device and the server is only shared between those two machines. You can get into a lot of risky business by sending your personal information over the Internet via unsecured HTTP. Some information is okay, but not credit cards or bank accounts. Definitely double check for that padlock icon before dropping items into your shopping cart.

And in some instances it may honestly be worth waiting until you can get onto a laptop or desktop computer. Many e-commerce websites are not created solely for mobile support. It is always an option, but why not wait and make sure your order is placed correctly?

Watch Statements And Report Suspicious Activity

If you are ever in doubt about your accounts being compromised do not hesitate in taking action. I have preemptively changed my passwords many times over when I feel it’s a good idea. Often times your gut instinct may indeed be correct without having any solid evidence.

Also be sure to log into your online banking accounts every so often and make sure there is no suspicious activity. Check for any money transfers or withdrawals which you didn’t authorize. These situations do not usually happen just solely by using mobile banking. However it doesn’t hurt the situation to be extra cautious when handling your money online.

Mobile Apps Worth Trying

I want to offer a small collection of native mobile applications you could try out related to some popular online vendors. Many of these apps have both Android and iOS support for the majority of smartphone users. The best way to determine quality is to check reviews and see what kind of experiences other users are having.

Some of the applications are related to mobile banking and money payments, while others are e-commerce stores and web shops. Before downloading anything be sure to check the developer and see if they are a trustworthy name. You can match the developer’s name with the company name and figure out the relation between them.

PayPal

Amazon

Dwolla

eBay

Newegg Mobile

Etsy

Square Wallet

Square Register

Final Thoughts

I know these are a lot of ideas to consider and they may not apply to everyone. But you really have to spend time planning your own needs for making payments online. As we have illustrated earlier there are plenty of native mobile applications put out by trustworthy companies which you can use from any mobile device.

If your money is safe enough in a digital online account then transferring onto mobile is just a matter of semantics. I do hope this article can offer more than just a few tidbits of knowledge here and there. Security is a topic I am passionate towards and always enjoy hearing related stories. If you have other ideas or questions about making secure mobile payments feel free to share with us in the discussion area.

How To Keeping Your Smartphone And Data Safe

Smartphones have evolved from being able to just check email and has now allowed us to do so many other things when paired with other devices. Nowadays, we can pay with our smartphones with digital wallet apps are able to store multiple credit cards. Most of our private information (together with other contact information) can be found in the apps on our smartphone through chatlogs, pictures, calendars, and notes.

This is why we rely so much on our smartphones and store so much sensitive data on it to make our lives easier. With all these sensitive data on board a tiny device, we should pay more attention to keeping it safe and away from anyone unwanted. Here are some precautions to help you.

1. Set Lockscreen Security That Self-Destructs

Leaving your phone unattended on a desk for a few minutes could lead to someone accessing it to extract lots of vulnerable information. Which is why enabling lockscreen security is essential to keeping your smartphone away from unwanted users.

This is the easiet way to defend you and your data, and pretty much every smartphone has this feature. Manufacturers know privacy is important to users.

Some thieves would try breaking the lockscreen by trying out passwords but to really keep your data safe from brute force hacking, you could enable a feature that erases all data from your smartphone after a preset number of failed attempts.

On the iPhone, it can be enabled under Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Erase Data.

By default, this kind of feature is not available on the Android, but you can enable a similar effect with a free app like Autowipe .

2. Turn Off Settings When Not In Use

Hackers are able to do all sorts of things that will surprise you. Turning off phone settings like Bluetooth, Location Services, Near Field Communication (NFC), Wi-Fi and even Cellular Data when not in use not only conserves smartphone battery but also gives hackers less access to your device.

Location Services and Bluetooth should not be turned on when not in use as apps can use lots of location data without you knowing it. As Bluetooth is constantly transmitting your devices’ location and presence, it is possible for hackers to use it to gain access and extract any kind of information found on your device.

3. Don’t Download Shady Apps

Apps are probably the only thing that can harm you by stealing your personal data. When downloading an app, make sure that all the details of the app comes from the original ‘company’ or correct developer. Some sneaky apps might even trick people to download a "New and improved HD version" of a legitimate app, so make sure you check a few app details before downloading.

For instance a mobile banking app (or any app that handles financial accounts) should come from the bank itself as seen here on the iOS App Store, and not some other seller or developer.

App ratings and comments can also tell a story. If it’s a popular bank or financial service (PayPal) app that has no rating or comments, chances are it might be fake and you should be careful about downloading it and logging in. So be sure to download apps only if it has been rated many times and has multiple comments.

4. Be Wary Of Fishy Apps And Links

Viruses on mobile platforms can be present in many ways. It can be in the form of a ‘dirty’ app that runs in the background transmitting user data. As the Android system allows third-party apps or programs to be installed (very easily), Android users may open their mobile system up to attacks if they are not wary of the apps they download to their phone.

There are however anti-virus scanning apps and other tools on Android that can detect and remove anything that can harm your privacy.

iOS users do not have anti-virus scanning apps, basically because there isn’t a pressing need for it.Apple is very strict with what gets on the App Store and will take down apps that harm its users in any way. Skip clicking on links in SMS, MMS, or even email attachments from unknown or unauthorised senders. Avoiding anything fishy altogether is very simple and should be practiced.

5. Do Not Lose Your Smartphone!

Not losing your smartphone is sometimes easier said than done. Of course no one wants to lose their smartphone, but unfortunate circustances might happen. You might have left it in a bar, in public transport, someone pickpocketed you during your vacation or you might have grabbed someone else’s phone by mistake. In all accounts, chances are your phone is good as gone.

If these things have a tendency to plague your life (some of us are serial phone-losers), installing apps that can locate your smartphone on your iOS or Android device is essential. These apps can help you locate your phone and some have the option to wipeout the data on the phone so you don’t become a victim of identity theft.

Conclusion

To be fair, there is no one mobile platform that is safer than another. With so many devices but only a handful of platforms to choose from, attackers are able to target any platform they desire and the repercussions can be quite devastating to power users. We, as users have to be cautious with what we do to and with our smartphones.

If you work extensively on with your smartphone, you might want to look to BlackBerry phones as they have encryption features in their devices. Finally, because Android is an open source platform, it is more vulnerable to attacks as hackers can easily find vulnerabilities on each device; iOS or Windows Phone are less vulnerable because their system codes are not openly shared to  the public.

How To Add Shortcuts To ‘My Computer’ On Windows 7 & 8

The ‘My Computer’ icon gives us easy access to our hard drives (or SSD), removable flash drives and other network-related locations. But if you’re one who enjoys a clutter-free desktop, then maybe you can use this tweak to remove the many program and folder shortcuts on your desktop.

Here’s a way to get more usefulness out of ”My Computer” by adding the shortcuts that you need to it. This also gives you quick access to the program or folder and works very well with Windows Explorer tabs tweak like Clover. Here’s how you can add shortcuts to your ”My Computer” in a few easy clicks.

Adding Program Shortcuts To ‘My Computer’

First you’ll have to navigate to a special folder. Shortcuts placed in this folder will be displayed on ‘My Computer’.

Hit Windows Key + R and type in %appdata% into the box and click on OK.

Then navigate to Microsoft > Windows > Network Shortcuts. Program shortcuts that you place here will be shown on ‘My Computer’, it’s that simple.

Once you have placed program shortcuts into that folder, you’ll be able to see the shortcut icons on ‘My Computer’.

Adding Folder Shortcuts To ‘My Computer’

Because you can add any shortcut, you can also add folder shortcuts. To easily do that, just right click on your frequently used folder and click on Create Shortcut.

Now all you have to do is cut (Ctrl + X) the created shortcut and paste (Ctrl + V) into theNetwork Shortcuts folder, like how we transferred the program shortcuts earlier.

Adding Control Panel Shortcuts

You can also have quick access to frequently used Control Panel shortcuts on your ‘My Computer’. All you have to do is simply click and drag something from the Control Panel to the Network Shortcuts folder.

Here’s the final result of adding all these shortcuts.

Now your ‘My Computer’ will be well equipped with all your frequently used shortcuts and quick access links.

How To Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts For Office 2013

Everyone knows that common keyboard shortcuts not only improves your productivity but also increases your overall typing speed. However, not all actions on Office 2013 have default keyboard shortcuts, some of these common actions include, changing font color or size and strikethrough text.

It would be fun to have shortcuts for these actions though especially when you have to do them over and over and over again.

In this post, we’ll show you how to assign shortcuts to these actions. This trick we are showing you works for almost all commands you can find on Office 2013, namely Word, PowerPoint and Excel, the more common Office products.

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts For Word 2013

Out of the 3 Office products we’ll be featuring here, only Word has the option to use custom keyboard combinations to trigger an action. Keys that we suggest to use would be a combination of Ctrl, Shift and Alt followed by a letter.

Here are some examples:

Start Word 2013 and navigate to the Options section by clicking on File > Options.

Then navigate to Customize Ribbon and you’ll find ‘Keyboard shortcuts’; click on the Customizebutton next to it.

Let’s first explain the things you see on this new window that pops up.

Commands are the actions you normally do on Word, for example Bold and Italics. These commands are in Categories based on the tabs in Word, e.g. the ‘Home’ tab or ‘Page Layout tab.

This arrangement means you’ll easily find the command you want to customize as a keyboard shortcut.

We’ll now demonstrate how to add a keyboard shortcut to the Strikethrough command on Word. You’ll notice there is no shortcut key for Strikethrough — the ‘Current keys’ box is empty.

Click on the ‘Press new shortcut key‘ box and personalize a keyboard combination shortcut. In this case, we used Alt + S.

You can see that the combination Alt + S is not taken because it’s unassigned. This is important as you do not want to double assign a combination. After that click on Assign.

You can see all the assigned shortcuts you have for each command in the ‘Current keys’ box. If it is empty that means you have yet to assign a shortcut to the command. Click Close when you’re done.

Now whenever you highlight text with your mouse, you can press Alt + S to Strikethrough it. Again, this is not just limited to Strikethrough but any command you set with a keyboard shortcut combination.

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts For PowerPoint & Excel 2013

There are some limitations creating shortcuts on PowerPoint and Excel as you don’t get as much flexibility compared to Word. However, adding keyboard shortcuts is simpler for both PowerPoint and Excel.

Let’s use the example of the AutoSum button. When you need the values of certain fields added up together, you use the AutoSum function. It’s handy to have a keyboard shortcut assigned to that if you are doing your bookkeeping, for instance.

To add a keyboard shortcut to AutoSum, right-click on it and select ‘Add to Quick Access Toolba’r.

It’ll be added to the top left corner of Excel, in the same row as the ‘Save’ and ‘Undo’ icons.

To activate this shortcut, all you have to do is hit the Alt key on your keyboard. You’ll see anumber corresponding to the shortcut, in this case it’s the number 4 that activates the AutoSum command.

You can do the same thing to any other command or action you need to use on both PowerPoint and Excel (this also works for Word). Just right click on the button and Add it to Quick Access Toolbar.

5 Ways To Make Your IOS Devices More Kid-Friendly And Child-Safe

Kids born into the tablet generation are exposed to more gadgets, devices and Internet tools than any other generation before theirs. Toddlers can navigate their way in a mobile device like a duck takes to water but they have little to no way of knowing how to be responsible with what they do to the contents of tablets and smartphones.

Anyone who has had lent a child a these devices would sometimes find apps missing, or files displaced, or even worse new purchases that were made without parental or the owner’s consent. While it is necessary to talk to them about handling these gadgets more responsibly, you can always fall back on the options available in iOS devices to better handle these mishaps.

Here are 5 tricks you can turn your iOS devices kid-friendly (applicable for iOS 6 and above).

1. Block In-App Purchases

If you have a lot of games on your iOS devices (who doesn’t?) you will need this. With your credit card linked to your Apple ID, you really don’t want to make a purchase as easy as tapping a button, especially when the person tapping it does not understand what a ‘purchase’ means.

To block in-app purchases:

1. Tap on Settings > General > Restrictions.
2. If this is your first time using restrictions feature, tap on Enable Restrictions.
3. You will be asked to set a 4-digit passcode. Enter the passcode twice for confirmation.
4. Scroll down until you see the ‘Allowed Content’ section.
5. Under ‘In-App Purchases’ toggle it OFF.

Future purchases will require the use of the passcode you have just set to proceed.

2. Disable ITunes, Installing & Deleting Apps

If you are afraid that your kids might accidentally delete off some of your apps or download paid apps without you knowing, you can avoid that disabling this feature under iTunes.

To disable app installation and/or deletion:

1. Go to Settings > General > Restrictions.
2. Under Allow, turn OFF iTunes.
3. Turn OFF Installing Apps and/or Deleting Apps.

When you turn all 3 features, the icon for iTunes and App Store will disappear from your home screen, thus making the feature inaccessible.

3. Disable Safari And Protect Data

To make your device more kid-friendly, you can disable more features under the Restrictionsoption. You can toggle OFF Safari, so that your kid can’t visit any website via the browser while they are on the device.

To protect data inside your Mail, Contacts and Calendars, under the ‘Accounts’ section, set your accounts settings to ‘Don’t Allow Changes‘.

4. Set Up YouTube Account

YouTube has a lot of great content for kids and is a favorite place for kids to find animation, music, videos and the likes online. It is best to set up an account for your child. From there, you can make a video playlist of content you think are suitable for their consumption. This will also protect your own playlist from being unintentionally tampered with.

As an added step, before handing the device to the kids to watch, enable Guided Access, so you can disable other parts of the screen to make sure they can’t leave the YouTube app, and wander elsewhere unsupervised.

5. Create ITunes Account

Not only can you give them a YouTube account, you can also create an iTunes account in their name. Then, you can either set an allowance for their app purchases, or gift them the app. With this you can control and monitor what they spend on in iTunes.

For children who are more mature with their activities online, this is also a good way to allow them to manage their own set of apps, without a credit card linked to the account. Note that if you are sharing a device with your kid, you will need to swap between accounts.

Summary

The tricks listed above are not foolproof especially against tech savvy kids who will undoubtedly one day outdo you when it comes to handling gadgets and mobile devices. So if the above mentioned methods do not work, you can always fall back on getting them to seek for your permission before they do anything on your devices.

Do note however that keeping your gadgets in working order is not as important as regularly checking in on your child‘s activities online. Keeping an open communication style allows them to speak to an adult if they have questions, or whenever that need arises.

What about you? What are your methods in handling gadgets around users of much younger ages?