Staying safe from phone hackers

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - As the phone hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch's media empire grows, it's making people aware there's a need to protect your phone from outsiders.

Experts say hacker's love your smart phone as much as you do. It has almost as much info as your personal computer, without nearly the same levels protection. Which, makes it vulnerable and tough to keep safe.

"These desktop computers, it's already the past. They don't care about this anymore their new target is smart phones," says Feng Li, Assistant Professor of computer and information technology at IUPU.

Li He studies how hackers get into smart phones and tablets. "How they stealing it, is that they somehow illegally connected to the service provider's network."

According to WIRED magazine, many victims of Murdoch's reporters simply neglected to change the default pin number carriers establish for every new account. Default codes are easy to crack, often simple combinations of numbers. Once hackers knew the victims phone number, they simply put in the code. So the most important protection is changing that code.

"Although it seems to be simple, it's also a good idea. That way if someone steals your phone or gets physical access to your phone, it will take them longer to get access to the data," says Li.

There are other steps you can take to keep you and your phone safe:
Immediately download operating system updates whenever available.
Lock your phone when you're not using it.
Consider backing up personal information and not storing it on your smart phone.
Never use unencrypted wifi.

All of those efforts will help, but Li says right now, hackers have the upper hand.

"Although we anticipate that the security product for smart phone devices will be out in the near future, they are still not there yet."

One other problem to watch for is infected apps. Try and buy from developers with a history. Then check that history. See what else they've developed. Read the reviews. And once again, if there's an update in your operating system, download it immediately.