mobile apps
Microsoft’s Windows Phone has been around since 2010, but the device started gaining steam with the release of Windows 8 in the summer of 2012. Though the devices still pale in market share to would-be rivals Android and Google, they are growing in popularity.
They are also developing a reputation as the most secure mobile phone on the market. For sure, Windows Phones experience fewer problems with malware because attackers spend the bulk of their time targeting the most widely used platforms – it’s hardly a coincidence that Google’s Android is the most widely sold mobile platform, yet continues to be plagued by malware concerns.
Windows Phones continue to grow in popularity, which means users should take precautions to make their devices as secure as possible. But mobile-device security isn’t just about stopping malware – it’s just as much about privacy features, restricting the permissions of oversharing apps and encrypting personal data. With that in mind, here are five apps to enhance security on your Windows Phone 8.
Keeper (Free): Best practices for Internet security include creating strong, unique passwords for each of your online accounts – and somehow remembering all of these different, complicated passphrases. Keeper is a secure password manager that autofills all of your logins for your various online accounts, syncs across Windows devices, offers data backup in the cloud and encrypts all of this highly sensitive information.
eWalletGo ($4.99): This popular app is used across platforms, and offers secure login information, particularly for banking and credit card functions. It stores credit cards, PINs, login information, lets users differentiate between personal and work accounts, and offers backup with user’s Google Docs and Dropbox accounts.
AVG Family Safety (Free): This secure browser is a parentally controlled alternative to Internet Explorer. It is specifically designed to block sites with inappropriate or malicious content, and when used in conjunction with AVG Family Safety PC, it lets parents set lists of allowed and blocked sites, monitor the online activity of different users on different devices, and block social networking sites based on the individual logins of each child.
Protect your Windows Phone with these 5 great security apps.
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Best Phone Security ($0.99): With a name like this, this app better take security seriously – and it does. Very seriously. For those who worry about people – family, friends, strangers – accessing their phone and trying to breach their data while they are away from their phone, this is app is for them. This app sets off an alarm and records the location of unsuccessful attempts to log into your phone, leaving little doubt about when and who tried to snoop on your phone.
Lock & Hide (Free): Ever let someone borrow your phone but worry about them flicking through your photos and finding something embarrassing? Lock & Hide puts all your photos behind password protection – and adds a layer of data encryption to thwart would-be attackers from accessing your private data.
Of course, Kaspersky Lab has ways to help you protect your Windows Phone too. Kaspersky Safe Browser for Windows Phone, downloadable from the Windows Store, protects users against phishing and other malware attacks, blocking malicious and inappropriate sites. And Kaspersky Mobile Security for Windows Mobile is an essential antivirus protection – and every mobile user should have an onboard mobile AV suite.
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