With a rapid increase in mobile phone users with each passing day, the risk of users’ personal data getting exposed to potential misuse and fraud is on the rise. This is even more so in view of the fact that mobile payments, wallets and banking apps are getting more popular than ever before. According to U.S. Consumer Confidence Index, a high number of adults in USA are worried about their online privacy. More than 80 percent of smart phone users avoid using mobile applications that they think do not protect their privacy.
Online marketers and advertisers are on a constant lookout for your financial and behavioral information. And you cannot simply rely on communication privacy claims that various companies make. The traditional encryption software may not be as secure as you presume it to be. In fact, encryption itself does NOT protect you. All the coding and how it’s implemented as well as infrastructure is the key. No one targets the encryption, brute force does NOT work, as it will require thousands of years to break it. What they try is to look for weaknesses that expose the person’s key, weak passwords, person’s identity or ability to impose them, as well as so called men-in-the-middle attacks.
People who just talk about encryption without truly understanding what it takes to protect communication can be easily misled. For example, server based is the worst type. This is considered bad practice regardless of what encryption is used.
SkyECC Message Self Destruct Does NOT Work
PGP Encryption Is Highly Secure
PGP or Pretty Good Privacy is a computer software used to encrypt, decrypt and authenticate online communication. Used widely by individuals and corporate alike, it is a time tested solution that has never been broken. Rather than using the public key system, PGP uses a slightly different method. It assigns a separate private key to each user, known only to him/her. The sender encrypts a message using public key of the receiver, and the receiver decrypts it using his/her private key.
While sending digital signature, it generates a hash code using information from user’s signature. This code is then securely encrypted using private key of the sender. The receiver decrypts the hash using public key of the sender.
Earlier, PGP software was available as freeware. Today, it is available as commercial version but fortunately that does not cost much. To start using PGP, you need to download and install the program on your PC. You will be given a public key that you are required to register with your PGP server, so that the people you communicate with can find it.
Conclusion
Though nobody is physically watching you on your mobile phone, you are under a constant ‘digital vigil’ by various companies. They use cross-device tracking, geo-location platform tracking and various other techniques to ‘break into’ your personal data and preferences. You never know how reliable and safe these hands grabbing your information are. So, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Take your mobile privacy seriously while enjoying your digital freedom!
