How to protect smartphone from online fraud? Follow these government guidelines

To protect online users from fraud, the Centre has issued an advisory for smartphone users to secure their devices from malicious cyber hacks. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a nodal agency under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has prepared a list of ‘Best Practices’. It shows dos and don’ts when downloading apps or browsing online through smartphone, The Hindustan Times business publication, Livemint reported.

Dos and Don’ts

The advisory asks users to be cautious while downloading applications. It can be harmful to download apps from sources other than the official app stores only; Google Play Store and App Store.

It is prudent to review the app details, number of downloads, user reviews, comments and “ADDITIONAL INFORMATION” section before downloading any app as at times official platforms may also have some malicious software programmes.

Remain attentive while granting app permissions and grant only those permissions which have a proper context for the app’s purpose.

The option to allow installing apps even from the “Untrusted Sources” should not be ticked.

Upgrade your device to the latest Android updates and patches when available.

Avoid visiting untrusted websites or opening untrusted links. Exercise caution while clicking on the link provided in any suspicious emails and SMSs.

Alert from suspicious numbers that seem different from real mobile phone numbers. Scammers often hide their identity by using email-to-text services to avoid exposing their actual phone number. Genuine SMS messages received from banks usually contain sender ID (comprising bank’s short name) instead of a phone number in the sender information field.

ALSO READ: Excessive smartphone use is connected to an early start to puberty: Study

The advisory asks for extensive research before clicking on any link provided in the message. It asks to verify with other websites that allow anyone to run a search based on a phone number and see any relatable information about whether a number is legit.

Only click on URLs that show the website domain. Users can search for the organisation’s website directly using search engines to ensure that the websites they visited are legitimate.

Take help from antivirus and anti-spyware software.

Users should use safe browsing tools, filtering tools (antivirus and content-based filtering), firewall, and filtering services.

Special care should be taken while clicking shortened URLs, such as those containing bit.ly and tinyurl. To check, users are advised to move their cursors over the shortened URLs to see the full website domain. A URL checker can also be used to allow the user to enter a short URL and view the full URL. Alternatively, users can also run the shortening service preview feature to see a preview of the full URL.