The iPhone is one of the most popular brands of phones ever, and in 2019 its popularity is not slowing down. Apple keeps adding more and more features to their iPhones which make them more desirable to customers. The same thing that makes them desirable to you is what makes them desirable to others who might not have your best interests at heart. Read on to find out some possible threats to your iPhone, and also tips for protecting your iPhone in 2019.

Threat: hackers and malware

Unfortunately, you have to be vigilant when it comes to keeping your iPhone protected from hackers and malware. One major reason you want to keep your iPhone safe from hackers is they can hack into your phone and then spy on you through the iPhone’s amazing camera. How? Well, they can create apps and get permission through the iOS settings. How many times have you downloaded apps without even paying attention to the permissions? You might want to be careful about that.

One easy way to make sure your device is secure is to make sure you don’t jailbreak your iPhone. Users sometimes want to jailbreak their iPhones so they can download apps that aren’t in the Apple store and this exposes iPhones to hacking and malware attacks. Just say no to jailbreaking.

Threat: data harvesting and other privacy concerns

Data harvesting might not be as much of a concern as other issues that can happen with your iPhone, but it’s definitely one issue you want to avoid if possible. Your privacy is at risk when you use apps. App providers can gather your data and sell it to third party data brokers who will then have access to your phone number. No one wants to delete all of their apps in order to limit the chance of having their data harvested by an unsavory app developer, but that’s certainly one way to make sure your data remains confidential.

Threat: iPhone theft

 As mentioned earlier, iPhones are highly covetable devices. So it’s no surprise that some people will do anything they can to get their hands on an iPhone including stealing it. If someone steals your iPhone, the features that Apple has in place may prevent them from being able to access your data, but there is always a chance that a thief can access all of your information on your phone including the contacts of your friends and family members, your personal messages, and more that you probably don’t want to even think about. Be careful about leaving your iPhone unattended and keep a vigilant watch out for situations where thieves may have easy access to your iPhone.

Ways to keep your iPhone protected

Now that we’ve looked at ways your iPhone might be vulnerable, let’s look at ways to keep your iPhone protected.

When you first get your iPhone, it’s not set up to maximum security standards. You should make sure your passcode is not a simple code to figure out. Make sure your code has both letters and numbers and is more than six digits long. You can adjust your code under the settings menu.

Another step you can take to ensure security for your iPhone is to set up two-factor authentication. This will make it more difficult for someone to access your phone without your consent.

You should also consider disabling location tracking. Apps can track exactly where you have been, and this is information you don’t want getting into the wrong hands. That will give someone access to your habits and daily routine. You can choose which apps have access to location tracking and which ones don’t under location services.

Find my iPhone is a feature that can really save you a lot of stress and heartache if you lose your phone or it gets stolen. If you enable this you can delete your iPhone’s data remotely so no one will be able to access your personal information. You can use any computer to do this once you have it activated.

Now that you know some of the potential threats to iPhones as well as ways to mitigate those threats, make sure you follow through. Following through with these tips may help you keep your iPhone just a bit safer so you can continue to enjoy it as long as you want.