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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Securing Your Tablet


It may surprise you to know that the biggest risk to your tablet is not hackers; it is most likely you. You are far more likely to lose, forget or have your tablet stolen than have someone hack into it.

The number one thing you should do to protect your tablet is enable automatic locking of the screen. This means every time you want to use your tablet, you first have to unlock the screen with a strong passcode, swiping pattern or your fingerprint. This ensures that if your tablet is lost or stolen no one can access it, protecting all of your personal information, your mobile apps and anything else on there.

Install or enable software to remotely track your new tablet over the Internet. This way, if your tablet is lost or stolen, you can potentially connect to it over the Internet and find its location, or in a worst-case situation, remotely wipe all of your information on it.

Update your device and enable automatic updating so it is always running the latest version of the operating system. Attackers are always looking for new weaknesses in software, and vendors are constantly releasing new updates and patches to fix them. By always running the latest operating system and the latest version of your mobile apps, you make it much harder for anyone to hack into your tablet.

When it comes to you Privacy:

1)    Pay attention when configuring your tablet for the first time, especially the privacy options. One of the biggest privacy issues with your tablet is the ability for others to track and know your location. We recommend you disable location tracking for everything, then re-enable location for only the apps you feel need it. For some apps, it is important to be able to track your location, such as mapping software or finding a local restaurant, but most of your apps do not need real-time location information.

2)    Most tablets and apps store your information in the Cloud. As such, ensure you understand where your data is and how it is secured. For example, the last thing you want is for your private pictures to be shared on the Internet for the entire world to see, complete with geo-location information embedded in them. By default, disable any sharing of any information in the Cloud, then enable it only when you want to share something specific.

3)    Tablets are increasingly synchronizing your apps with other devices, such as your smartphone or laptop. Synchronization can be a wonderful feature, but be careful of what apps or features you allow to synchronize. If you have synchronization enabled, don’t be surprised to see the sites you visited and the tabs you created on your tablet’s browser appear in your browser at work.

Donna Pogroszewski
Communications and Network Services
10/25/2016