How secure is your phone? 9 Shocking Risks you might be ignoring.

Ralph
00:00:00

Have you ever had that sinking feeling when you realize you've lost your phone? Or worse, had it stolen? What if someone could access all of your personal and your financial information? Well today, we're going to talk about the shocking risk you might be ignoring when it comes to your phone security.

One of our listeners, Travis, wrote in with a real concern. He recently lost his phone and is worried about how secure his information really is. So if you've ever been in a similar situation, I'm going to share my story today, or just want to make sure you're doing everything you can to protect your data, you're in the right place because today we're going to explore some common phone security risks, we're going to talk about the different types of mobile phones, and I'm going to provide you with some practical steps to safeguard your information. So I'm going to encourage you, today's a show you don't want to miss. Stick around and let's make sure your phone stays safe and secure.

Podcast Announcer
00:00:54

In a world where crushing debt keeps you trapped, where living paycheck to paycheck has become your new normal, and where the dream of retirement seems impossibly out of reach, there's hope. Join financial evangelist Ralph Estep Jr. A man who's walked through the fire of financial failure and emerged stronger on the other side.

Welcome to Ask Ralph, the show where real world experience meets biblical truth to break the bondage of financial despair.

Get ready to take control of your money, break free from the financial stress and align your resources with God's purpose for your life. This is Ask Ralph with Ralph Estep Jr.

Ralph
00:01:33

Well, thanks for joining me on the show. I am your financial evangelist and today I'm your technology evangelist. I'm here to help you navigate the world of finance from a Christian perspective. We're going to navigate the world of technology from a Christian perspective today.

Now if you missed yesterday's show, we discussed the mystery of 1099 forms. What are they? Why you receive one and how you can avoid costly mistakes when it comes to your taxes. So I'm going to encourage, if you missed it, go check it out. You can find all of our episodes at askralph.com. Well today, like I said, we're taking a little detour.

We're getting into phone security because the truth is our phones have become an extension of ourselves. But with that convenience comes some significant risks. So let's make sure you're aware of the dangers and know how to protect yourself. There's really two fold show today. Cause stay with us, because what we're about to discuss could change the way you think about your phone forever.

Well, let's get right to Travis's question. This is what Travis wrote. He said, "Dear Ralph, I recently lost my phone while on vacation. It's a beautiful day, and we're out exploring a new city. I was taking photos and I was enjoying the moment when I realized my phone was gone.

Panic set in immediately. I quickly retraced my step. I searched everywhere, but it was nowhere to be found. The worst part is I hadn't taken any precautions to secure my phone. I didn't have a strong password, no two factor authentication, and I hadn't backed up my data in months. All my personal information, my banking details, my precious family photos were on that phone.

I feel absolutely helpless and terrified that someone might have access to all of my sensitive information. Now I know I should have been more careful, but it's too late now. So what are some risks that I need to be aware of, and how can I make sure my phone is secure for the future? I don't want to go through this nightmare again.

Thank you for any advice you can give." And that was signed Travis. And listen, Travis, I can relate to that. Let me tell you a quick story. A few years ago, my wife and my oldest son and I, we were taking a tour of Germany. We were on a tour bus and we're driving through the countryside. It was a beautiful setting.

There's the mountains around us. The sun was setting, scenery was breathtaking and I reached for my iPhone. I had been taking pictures for the last few days. I reached for it and all of a sudden I can't find it. Now it's funny at the time I was wearing one of these call Scotte jackets. You've seen these on TV.

It's got like a million different pockets. And I thought, Hey, this is going to be great for traveling. I can put this in this pocket, my passport in this pocket. But all of a sudden I go to reach for that phone because I wanted to take that perfect picture and I realized it was gone. And as soon as I realized it, I'm going to tell you right now, panic set in.

So Travis, I get it. I'm searching my pockets. I'm, you know, feeling all the different pieces of my jacket. I'm looking on the seat. I'm looking on the floor. I'm saying to my wife, hey, do you have you seen my phone? I don't have your phone. And I thought to myself it's got to be here at Ralph, you know it's here somewhere. And again, that panic started to set in, I started thinking about all the stuff that's on my phone, those banking details, all those emails, the text messages, the photos from the last 20 years, you name it.

My entire life is on this phone. And here I am in a foreign country. I'm away from home. I don't have access to the normal things that be around for me. And it turned, it was like a nightmare. And maybe you found yourself in that same position. Now in my case, I started to take stock of the situation and the reason I'm doing this show today is I did some of these things ahead of time.

And I want to encourage you to do those as well, because I had that strong password. I had that two factor authentication. I had that phone tracking and I'm an Apple user. I had that Apple insurance. So as soon as I realized there was an issue, I sprung into action. I remotely locked it. I used my wife's phone and remotely locked mine.

I wiped its data. And yes, it was a big, huge hassle, but immediately I knew my data was safe. And in the end, it turns out someone had grabbed the wrong phone during the tour. And the next morning, the tour guide mentioned that a phone was found and yep, it was mine. So crisis averted, but Travis and everyone else listening.
Let's talk today about why it's so important to keep your phone secure. Let's talk about some of the vulnerabilities that a lot of people don't even think about because you don't want to miss this opportunity to secure this because like I said, everybody's caring is, everyone is carrying these and we need to be aware of the vulnerabilities.

Now, if you're like Travis and you've got a question for the show, one of the best ways you can reach me is just go to justaskralph.com and you can put your question right there. Just give me your first name, type the question in, and you can also make it anonymous if you want to, but send in your questions because I love hearing from you.
I want to do a show that is impactful for you. So if you send me your questions, they will definitely show up on the show. And I want to remind everybody that we also go live every Tuesday at 1 PM Eastern time. It's your opportunity to come and pick my brain. You can join our community, ask questions about finance, ask questions about faith.
And here's the best part. It's absolutely free. I was on a call yesterday and somebody said, Ralph, what do you mean it's free. I said, yes, you can come and pick my brain for 60 minutes, I will answer your financial questions. I'll answer your tax questions. I'll combine that with faith. So I'll encourage you again.
And it's real easy to get to us. Just go to askralphpodcast.com/live. We do it every Tuesday at 1 PM. Eastern time.

Well, let's get to our Bible verse today. As you know, I always like to start things by grounding them in scripture. Now I picked a Bible verse today, which a lot of people are going to call a head scratcher.
And it's the parable of the talents. And I'm going to explain to you why I think this is relevant. It comes right from the book of Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 to 30. And the reason I pick this is it's all about the importance of being a good steward. And you might say, Ralph, you've lost your mind. How does that make any sense?
Well your iPhone, your Android phone, your windows so yeah, people actually have those. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But that phone is contains so much of your information. A lot of people, that's their main access point for their bank account, for their credit cards, for emails, for text messages, for social media, for all of those things.
So we've got to be good stewards of. So let's drop right into the Bible and let's see what it has to say for us. Matthew 25 and I'm just going to look at verses 14 and 15. It says this. "For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them to his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability.
And then he went away." And again, you might be saying, Ralph, this is a head scratcher for me today, dude. I don't understand it. Well, you've got to be responsible for what we've been given. We put so much of our lives on these phones. We've got to be wise. And in today's digital age, our phones contain all of that information.
So we gotta be wise about it.

Well, let me get to my gratitude statement today, because I am grateful for the wisdom of the Bible and for the opportunity to help you protect your information. Because like I said, everybody's carrying these phones.
Everybody's got these phones. So let's get into the 9 shocking phone security risks you might be ignoring and how you can safeguard yourself and prevent problems from down the road.

So here are what I consider the nine security risks we need to be aware of.
First one, phishing scams. Imagine getting a text message that looks like it's from your bank. Hey, I actually got one of these. I talked about this on a prior show. And all of a sudden you click on that link to verify your account, you click on that link. And before you know it, your account is compromised.

It's a scary thought, but it happens all the time. It happens more often than you think. So stay tuned as I talk about how to prevent those phishing attacks. You don't want to be a victim of that. And they happen through SMS messages. They happen through social media posts and even those QR codes that are everywhere, people are encouraging you to scan and to do something with.

That's the first one. Second one. Risky and malicious apps. Picture this. Everybody just jumps on these apps. You know, you download this new game from the app store. So you, Oh, it's an app store. It must be legitimate. And it asks for permissions to access your contacts. And we'll talk about why that doesn't make any sense in a minute, but it says, Hey, we need to have access to your contacts.

We need to have access to your photos and your location and thinking nothing of it. Oh yeah. Well, they all asked for that. Yeah, sure. And here's the problem. Little do you know that app is now harvesting your data. There are people out there that are making money creating these apps that look like they're innocuous.

They look like they're all simple apps that, Hey, take a picture and we'll make you look like you're 20 years younger, 20 years older. It cracks me up because there are people out there harvesting that information. And guess what? Cyber criminals are using those things to steal your data. They're stealing your information that's right there. You're giving it to them. You're saying to them, fine, here's the permissions for that. It's a frightening reality. We'll talk about how to prevent that in a few minutes as well. Another big problem, device theft and data breaches. Think about this. And I experienced this myself. Your own vacation.

You're taking photos of this beautiful landscape. You're enjoying the moment and suddenly you realize just like I did, your iPhone or your Android phone or whatever that phone is, it's missing. You instantly retrace your steps, but it's nowhere to be found. You've checked all the pockets in that jacket that has 20 pockets in it.

And just like me, that panic sets in and you think about all your personal information that's stored on your phone. That is a nightmare scenario. And think about it. These are easily stolen. They're little small things now. And then once they get that, they've got all your information. So we're going to talk today again about how you protect yourself.
Another vulnerability. This is number four on the list of nine are what they call push button and SMS attacks. And these are, do you seem like they're no big deal, but imagine this, you receive a text message from an unknown number, comes up on your phone. It's unknown. And it's, and they say they're from your bank and they're asking you to verify your account.

You thinking, well, there must be something wrong with my bank. I better do this right away. Maybe somebody has stolen my credit card and my debit card. So without thinking you reply and before you know it, your account is compromised. And that's a terrifying thought, but it happens all too often.

Cyber criminals are using these SMS messages and these push buttons. Just push this button. It looks like it's a good message. Like it's something you need to do something on, but it's just this deceptive message that is exploiting a security flaw in these messaging apps. Number five, let's talk about AI because AI is all over the world right now.

Every device we have, I mean, Apple just rolled out this big AI assistant. So that's something you got to watch out for and what they call permission attacks. Because think about this. I've read about this one. This one will, this will rock your world. Imagine receiving a call from what appears to be your bank.

You know, it shows up on your phone, such and such bank. And then all of a sudden, there's a voice on the other side of the line. It sounds just like a customer service representative you've spoken to before. And this voice, you know, this must be Sally from the bank. And that voice on the other end asks for your account details.

And you're thinking, well, of course that's Sally. I'll give her whatever she needs. She's trying to help me. And without even thinking about it, you provide that and see, that's a frightening scenario because guess what? There are AI tools out there right now that can clone your voice. I actually have something called ElevenLabs.

It's a website you can go to and you can actually record your voice and it will clone your voice. And I actually have a clone of my voice. Now, I'm gonna tell you right now, you're actually listening to Ralph today. This isn't a clone voice. But there are ways for people to do that so you got to be aware of that. So that's number five on my list.

Number six. I'm going to pick on people here about lax, updating your phone and having passwords that aren't disciplined. You think about it. You're putting off updating your phone software because you just don't want to deal with the hassle. Now, I don't think it's a big hassle. So mine goes on the charger at night and overnight it updates a thing.

But a lot of people just don't put off. My kid, my youngest kid does this. I say to him, Hey, is your phone up to date? Yeah, I got to get to that. I got to clear some stuff off to make room for the update. Well, here's the problem. The reason they're pushing out those updates and if you're an Apple user, I know that's what I use.

You're seeing a lot more of these continuous updates. That's because cyber criminals are on the job every minute discovering vulnerabilities in outdated software. Now, when I say outdated software, that could be software from a week ago, because these criminals, this is what they spend their days doing.

They know everyone is carrying these phones. They can track people. They can get all your information. So before you know it, if you haven't updated your software, if you haven't patched, if you've got garbage for passwords, and we'll talk about that in a few minutes about how to improve those situation. Your personal information is compromised.

And that's a terrifying thought as well, but it happens all the time. So that's number six, that's those lax updates and that in the terrible password discipline. Well, let's look at number seven. This is what we call data leakage. And a lot of people say, Ralph, what in the world are you talking about this?

Let me explain. So imagine downloading a new app. This app, everybody wants to use this app. I remember a couple of years ago, there was something where it would change your face and everybody was downloading this app to their iPhone or their Android phone. And as soon as you download that, the first thing it says is we'd like to have access to your contacts.
We'd like to have access to your photos and your location. And again, you think nothing of it. You grant the permissions. Hey, everybody's using this app. It must be safe. I got it at the Apple store. I got it at the Google store. And here's what you don't know. That app is harvesting your data and sending it to a bunch of third parties.

Well, some of those third parties could very well be cyber criminals. They could be sinister in nature. So you got to watch out for that data leakage, you know, pay attention to what you're granting. And we'll talk about how to do that, how to implement that in a few minutes. Another big one. A lot of people don't understand this one.

This one floors me, and that's unsecured Wi-Fi. So think about it like this. I did a show, but this a couple of months ago. You're sitting at a coffee shop. You're using that free Wi-Fi. You got a few minutes before your friend arrives. You're going to check your bank account, make sure you've done that transfer

you need to do. Take a look at your balance, see what transactions have prospered or what happened on your account. And you, Oh, you know, I'm going to use their free Wi-Fi. Why not? Why should I pay for data? And then all of a sudden you're sitting there, you get a text message from the bank saying that your account has been compromised.

Now, first of all, is it legitimate? Ask yourself that question first. Things you'll say, How did this happen? I was just checking my balances. I wasn't doing anything. But this again, happens more often than you think using these free Wi-Finetworks. We'll talk about that. And number nine on the list is something we call a network spoofing. And this one, I was floored when I read about this one and preparing for the show today, this was amazing.

So think about this. You're sitting at an airport, you're waiting for your flight. And I don't know about you. We just flew to, in December, we flew to Houston to see my oldest son for Christmas. We're sitting there in the airport. And it's about two hours before the flight, because I'm one of these guys.

I want to be there early. My wife gives me crazy. She's like, why are we here three hours early. Well, I want to make sure that I am there ready to go. I'm sitting there. What am I going to do? So I'm going to say, Oh, let me check my email. And I look at, Oh, my bars on my phone aren't great, but let me click on Wi-Fi.

Let's see what Wi-Fi is around me. Next thing I saw, I see this thing. It says free airport Wi-Fi. I'm thinking, Hey, free airport Wi-Fi. Let me join. And a lot of people do this. They decide to connect to that, but here's the thing a lot of people don't understand. That free airport Wi-Fi is really a hotspot that a guy over in the corner, a shady dude with a laptop set up.

And now you've connected to it and you've exposed all of your information to that hack. They sit there and they collect your data. And before you know it, all your stuff is compromised. It's a terrifying thought, but it happens all the time. So those are really the big 9 vulnerabilities. Now, before we get into how to prevent this, I want to talk a little bit about the different types of phones.

You might say, Ralph, this is rudimentary basic information. Yes. But I think we all need to understand the differences between the different I, the different types of phones, because there's really three. There's the iOS or the Apple devices. There's the Android devices and something called windows phones. I honestly don't know anybody uses one, but I want to talk about each of those.

I want to talk about a little bit about the pros and cons of each. So with me, I'm completely in the Apple ecosystem. And the reason I'm there with the iPhone is I look at it. They have a tight security measures. Their app store is heavily regulated. You got to really be aware of what's going on.

They are really, they really take a look at who can put stuff on the Apple on the store. But here's the problem. All of that said, but they're still people finding vulnerabilities. They're still sending out these patches. Which is why it's so important. I'll talk about that in a few minutes, why it's important to update your phone.

So that's really the big pro with the Apple ecosystem. It's a tight security. It's a tightly regulated platform. Now of course, two cons to that. Number one, a lot of people complain about is Apple stuff is not cheap. It's expensive. And that may not be feasible for everybody's budget. This is a show about Christian finance.

You might go, Ralph, I can't afford that iPhone, but I can afford this Android phone. It's a lot cheaper. So that's issue number, a con number one. Con number two is this one. When something is so secure, a lot of people complain about it being restrictive. You don't have these customization options. Hey, if it's not in the app store, you can't use it.

And that can be a downside for some users who prefer more flexibility. So that's really the pros and cons of the Apple. Very locked down thing, high security, but more expensive and less, less, you know, flexibility. Now there's the Android devices. And from what I understand, I don't have statistics to talk about today, but there are a lot of Android devices out there.

So the pros to these is there are a ton of different devices and they're all over the place with price points. You can get something that's very basic to something like I saw one the other day, this guy had this Android phone and it flipped and it opened up, it looked like a laptop screen. And that open nature of their coding also allows for greater customization.
They don't have that lockdown in that ecosystem that Apple has. So it's catered to users who want more personalized experiences. Now the con to that obviously is that, that open nature makes it more vulnerable to malware and to security threats. You know, I truly believe that there is an issue there because here's the thing.

In the Apple ecosystem, it's kind of like a seatbelt. You know, they're locking you in. In the Android phone, you don't have those seatbelts. So users got to be aware of what they're downloading because you could be granting permissions that could destroy your data. And it's fragmented. There's different people making the Android phones.

Now, the third one is a windows phone. And I honestly, before I did this show, I didn't even realize this was a thing. Windows phones, the pros of these are they integrate with Microsoft services. Well, they're made by windows. That makes sense. And that can be beneficial for business users. And honestly, I don't know anybody who uses them, but the pros and cons here is that seamless integration with the office applications.

And they're less targeted by malware simply because less people have them. So it's kind of like, there's not a big bullseye on them. Now, the cons to this, they have a small market share, which means they don't have a lot of app options. I think it's all in that ecosystem of Microsoft. And the problem with that is it's less frequently updated.

So there could be a vulnerability. It takes a lot longer for it to operate. So you might be saying great Ralph. That's fantastic. But what does this mean to me? And then I'm going to share a couple pieces of statistical information with you, because I was amazed when I read this. Now this is as of 2023, a company called Statista. They said there are 6 billion.
That's a B, billion smartphone users worldwide. And so you might be saying, okay, Ralph, why does that matter? Well, this is why this phone security is so important. And listen to this. In the U.S. Alone, just the United States. And I was actually surprised to hear this. 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind.

Okay. That's great. But here's the more staggering statistic. 85% of those are smartphones. See so in the end, everybody's got one of these. I see kids walking around five, six, seven years old. So there is a critical need for robust security because we've got to protect our personal and our financial information, because we're relying on these things more and more
so we need to have those safeguards. So I think you've heard me now. We've talked about those 9 vulnerabilities. We talked about the different types of phones. Well, let's cut to the chase and let's talk about how you can protect yourself. I want to give you some practical steps that you can start to implement today.

Not tomorrow, because as I always say on the show, take action, put these things into place right away.

So number one thing you can do. This is crucial. Set a strong passcode or use a biometric lock. Listen, the passcode of one, two, three, four is not wise. There are tons of people.
I meet them in my practice every day that don't even have a passcode on their phone. And I'll say to them, Hey, how come you don't have a passcode on your phone? Do you want to sit there and type that in every time I turn my phone off or set my phone down? I said, yeah, that sounds good. But here's the problem with that.

If you lose that phone, if it falls out of your pocket, it's like me. And it falls off on that tour bus. Anybody can grab your phone and just swipe up or whatever it looks like on an Android. Like I don't have an Android device. I don't know how that works, but I'm assuming it's the same way. I know my Apple phone just swipe up and Hey, I’ve hit the lottery, man.

I'm on this phone. So then you say, okay, well, but then what are my other options? I want to sit there and type a code every time. Well, biometric locks are even better. You know, Apple has the retinal scan where you scanned your face. You can use a fingerprint and a lot of people like those because then you don't have to type in that code every time.
I know I love it on my iPhone. I can grab my iPhone and look at it and it opens up. I know sometimes it's kind of funny when I'm out in the morning, walking the dog, I have like a face shield on because it's been so cold here in Delaware. It's actually annoying. I got to type in my code, but here's the thing.

Make sure, number one thing, make sure you stretch a strong passcode. If you don't have a passcode, then at least set up that biometric lock, because here's the thing. Our phones are small, they're easy to lose. It's not like a brick. I remember my first cell phone. I was telling somebody about this the other day.

I think it was one of my kids and they had no concept of this because they've grown up in the age when these cell phones are all small. I remember the first cell phone I got, I was in college and I thought, Hey, I want to get a cell phone. That'll be cool. And I can cruise around town and pretend like I'm on the phone.

I went to Sears, which is a big department store. I don't even know if they're still around anymore. Go into Sears and I'm looking at these phones and these folks were, it was like carrying a book bag. I mean, these things were massive and they weighed a ton, but see now our phones are so small. I mean, you can slip these into your front pocket, your backpack.
I've seen some of these folding phones that are about the size of a deck of cards. So you got to make sure that if you lose that phone, if somebody steals that phone, you've got that strong passcode or biometric lock. I think I've, I think I've convinced you on that one. Let's move to number second or the second thing.

And this is something I talk about on the show all the time. It is something you should have on every single one of your accounts. And that's two factor authentication because it adds that extra layer of security. When you have that two layer authentication. Yes. Maybe somebody has your passcode.

Maybe they grab your phone and you've got your password stored on there. You've got them memorized. Well, if you've got that two factor authentication, then they need that second piece to the puzzle. Now, a little inside baseball tip here is you maybe not want to have that two factor authentication on the same device.

Maybe you want to use a third party app or something like that. A lot of people just use text codes. Well, that's great. Well, if I steal your iPhone or steal your Android phone, steal your smartphone, let's use that term better. And you've got that two factor authentication. Hey, that's no big deal for me because I already, you didn't have a passcode on your phone.

I'm looking at your phone. It says I need the two factor authentication to hit, go ahead and submit. And then bang, you get a text message. Amen. So that's where the text messages aren't great. So second thing, and this, I think you should do this on all of your accounts. I mean, all of them. Your bank accounts, your email accounts, your social media accounts, nobody wants to get hacked.

Add those two factor authentications. It's a simple step. And I go, I got a lot of people say, Ralph, that's annoying. I got to wait for those codes. Well, guess what? And the thing is a lot of companies are requiring those. So second thing, enable two factor authentication. Third thing. And I learned this one by being involved and when I lost my phone. Install a phone tracking app. Now, if you're an iPhone user kind of comes along with it, that find my phone on iOS, because it allows you to lock it. It allows you to erase it. You can locate it. You can do all these things remotely, and this can be a lifesaver if you get into that position where your phone goes missing, whether you've lost it, misplaced it, whether it got stolen, that one is huge.

So listen to me, install a phone tracking app. Have all your data information on it. That's number three. Now number four keep your phone updated. I don't know how many people I've met. Oh yeah. I got to get to that. My own son. He tells me all the time. Oh yeah. I got to get to that. But I've got this game installed.

I don't have any room on my phone, dad. I'm like, well you got to update your information. Make it a habit. Like I'm, one of the things that I do every night when I go to bed, the phone goes on the nightstand. I've got a nice little charging table and I have it set up on my iPhone that automatically does this update.

You might be saying, Ralph, who cares? Well see is every day, these cyber criminals are out there looking for vulnerabilities and listen, they're finding them. You got big fat code out there. People are looking for ways to exploit the data. So many people are carrying these things. So many people have all of their life on these phones.

Well, the carriers have gotten smart. You know, Apple's gotten smart. Android's got some, they're putting out these patches. Well, if you don't update your phone, you don't have the latest software. So keep your phone updated. Number five, make sure you download apps from trusted sources. Now, this isn't so much of an issue in the Apple ecosystem. But if you make sure that you're using things from Google play or Apple's store, I know there is a workaround now on the Apple phone that you can actually download apps that aren't from the store. The reason you want to do that is because the store doesn't want to send out this malicious code. So if you go and download stuff from third party sources, these could very well contain malware.

They might have, you know, harvesting stuff. So before you download anything, check its reviews, check its ratings, and make sure it's legitimate and trustworthy. And like I said, my advice, my advice is make sure you're getting it from one of the major stores. So that's number five, download apps from trusted sources.

Number six, review app permissions. This is a personal pet peeve of mine. How many times have you gotten that app because, Oh, everybody's using this app. And the first thing it says is we want to share your phone contacts. We want to share your email. We want to share your location. But do they really need that information?

Review what they're asking for before you just blanket grant them access. So many people just, Oh yeah, sure. Fine. For example, I'll give you a great one. A flashlight app for your phone doesn't need to have access to your contacts. Your contacts don't care if you downloaded that flashlight app. So if that app is asking for that, don't use that app.
Flashlight app doesn't need to know your location. So take some time and look at what permissions you're granting. And if you've already got apps on your phone, go into your security settings and look and see what permissions are you granting and do they really need this? Now, what I have found is some apps will ask for the moon and you're like, well, I really want to use this app.

My, you know, I need to have this app. Well, that's fine. Download the app, but then go into the security features and uncheck all the things that you don't want to have, that you don't want it to have access to. So that's number six. Don't just say, Oh, sure. I agree. That's fine. Grant all these things. Review your app permissions.

Number seven. I'm going to talk about this with that whole thing with the public Wi-Fi. If you're going to be using public Wi-Fi, first of all, I think it's a bad plan. If you can avoid using it, don't use it. But if you are going to use it, get a VPN. And I've done shows about VPNs. They're virtual private networks, because what that does, it's a little piece of software you put on your phone.

There's a bunch of companies that have them. I use Norton 360. It has a VPN built in. And what that does, it encrypts your data from point A to point B. So if you've got that scoundrel sitting in the airport who created that fake, you know, quote airport free Wi-Fi, and they're sitting over there with their laptop, they're not going to be able to get any of your data because you've encrypted.

You've used a VPN that creates this secure tunnel between your phone and the internet. It makes it not impossible, but pretty impossible for attackers to and hackers to eavesdrop on your online activities. There are a ton of these available. Some of them are free. Some of them are paid. You pay, you get what you pay for but choose one that meets your needs and ensure that whenever you connect to public Wi-Fi, I know it's set up on my phone like this now, because even on my own personal here on the farm, I've got some, what they call internet service devices out around the farm. I can't think of the name of them, but they extend the signal.

Well on those, I don't have security turned on. So even when I'm out on my own farm, my iPhone will pop and say, we've started your VPN because you're on an unsecured network. So if you're going to use it, and like I said, I am not a big fan of public Wi-Fi, but if you're going to use them, make sure you're using a VPN. Number eight thing.

Lock your phone. A lot of people don't do this, but you should say, it is why they built this into this thing. Set your phone to lock automatically when not in use. Now you can decide whether that's one minute, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it looks like, because listen to me, there are going to be times, I don't know how many times I've been out to a restaurant and somebody leaves their phone sitting on the table.

Maybe they get up to go to the restroom and they walk across the restaurant, they leave it sitting there. Well, if it doesn't automatically lock, somebody can grab that phone and then you, their data's gone. So you know, set that up to suit your preferences, but ensure that the lock time is short enough to provide adequate protection.

And again, you can usually find this under the security or similar section on your phone. So number eight, lock your phone. Well, if you're going to lock your phone, make sure you have a password, make sure you're using some kind of biometric data. Number nine thing, Travis, you learn this the hard way.

Backup your data. Backup your phone data on the cloud or on a computer. Now you know, Apple ecosystem has a great one for this. You can use iCloud because this way, if you're in that position, like I was in that position in Germany, when my phone was missing, the first thing I'm thinking of is Okay. Well, I'm going to remotely wipe it so none of my data is there, but then I'm thinking, okay, great. Where am I going to get all this stuff then? Oh, I'm okay. I've got this iCloud backup. So even if I was to go to that iPhone or the Apple store in Germany, they're going to give me a phone. I'm not going to know what they're talking about.

Cause I don't understand Germany, but anyway, I'm going to be able to get my data back. So back up your data, because if you are the, if you get attacked by ransomware, or if you have some kind of scam that goes on your phone, you can delete that thing completely and go back to a store point before that was put on there.

Now, most phones, speaking in general terms, have this built in feature that you can run it automatically. So just ensure that you're doing that and make sure that you're, you have a routine about that. Number 10. Enable find my device. Apple ecosystem is great about this, but you have to activate it. Make sure that you'll be able to locate, lock or erase your phone remotely

if it's lost or stolen. Again, this is typically found under security and make sure it's enabled. Don't ever turn this off. Enable that find my device. Number 11. And this is the last on my list of things you can do to prevent yourself from getting, having a problem with your phone. Like I said, we're all carrying these is protect mobile hotspots.
You know, I'd be saying, wait a minute, isn't this Wi-Fi? No, this is something to you completely different. It's another thing a lot of people don't think about. Most modern phones now have the ability to create a hotspot so that you can use another device. Maybe you've got an iPad or a tablet or a laptop.

Well, you can use your iPhone as sort of a mini router. I don't know how many times I've been out in public and seeing these mobile hotspots and there's no security on them. I could connect to anybody's mobile. I think I was in an airport one time and I opened up my phone. I'm looking at Wi-Fi and there had to be 40 or 50 of these mobile hotspots.

And what amazed me is so many didn't have any security terms. So if you're going to use a mobile hotspot, put a strong password on it. You don't want to leave it open. Again, you can usually find this under network or internet or similar sections. Now I know we've covered a lot today, but one of the things I want to remind you of is every day when I do the show, I also write a blog post. So I'm going to encourage you to go check that out.

Now for more in depth information about phone security, you can check out our daily blog posts. That's at askralphpodcast.com/blog. It's a way to go a little deeper. I go into the research I use to talk about the show.

I give you some techniques and some more information. I encourage you to do that. Well, let's move into our reflection questions.

I like to do reflection questions because they really reinforce what we've talked about today. So here's three for you. Number one, I know I talk about on this show all the time, make action, do something today. So number one, what small step can I take today to improve my phone's security? If you've listened to this episode, you know, man, I didn't realize there were so many vulnerabilities. So what can you do today? What small step can you take today to improve your phone security?

That's number one. Number two, I'm going to get into a faith discussion here for a second. How does my faith influence the way I handle my personal information? You have to think about that. You know, we talked about that stewardship. We talked about that parable of the talent. You've been given this, these resources, how are you protecting them? So answer that question. How does my faith influence the way I handle my personal information? And number three, this one might hurt a little bit. What changes can I make to align my phone usage with God's purpose for my life? And that's a little deep, but it's one I wanted to throw in there today. Just think about it.

You know, what are the things you're doing on your phone? Are you really using it in alignment with God's purposes in your life? And those are just simple three reflection questions.

Now, one of the last things I want to talk about before I leave today is can, I want you to consider supporting the show. If you find value in our show, I want to encourage you to continue to consider supporting us. You can share the show with somebody, friends or family. Maybe, you know, everybody's got these cell phones that we said 97%. Share the episode with them. Just say, Hey, I just listened to this episode from Ralph. It was great.
He talked about these nine vulnerabilities that, that nobody thinks about, but even better, he told me how to prevent them. So I'm going to encourage you to check that out and send that to your friends. You send them to askralph.com. Now, if you really want to be generous, you can consider supporting the show.

You can do that by going to askralphpodcast.com/support. We do what's called a virtual coffee. Nobody's going to arrive at my office here and give me a coffee, but it's a virtual coffee. And you might be saying, Ralph, why do you ask for that? It's not for me. It's so that I can reach more people with the show.

You can make a one time support. You can do recurring support, but please consider this. So at the end here, what we've covered today, we talked about nine shocking phone security risk and a lot of these you might not have thought about. So really think about those. Maybe you want to go back and re listen to this.

Share this with others. We talked about the different types of phones and most importantly, we talked about how to protect yourself because remember this. Being a good steward of your personal information is part of living out your faith. And as Christians, we're called to be wise and responsible with the resources entrusted to us and that includes our personal data. Now tomorrow, we're going to change the topic completely. We're going to get back on faith and finance. We're going to be assessing a crucial topic for anybody who's changing jobs. And that is "Changing jobs? Don't derail your 401k. Here's how to get it right." You don't want to miss it.

If you're changing jobs, I'm going to talk about how to take that retirement that you've been building, that you've been nurturing and how to move it to your new job and what your options are. I'm going to give you some practical advice on how to move forward. So remember this as I close today. My passion is to help you achieve financial success.
I want to see you live out your dreams and I want to see you grow in your faith and I know together we can master your finances from that Christian perspective. So as I always end this show, stay financially savvy out there and may God bless you abundantly.

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