Phones are essential in today’s world. It has all your information and it connects you with people around you. It can even contain vital information such as private photos and bank details.
That means, at the wrong hands, your phone is a goldmine of data about you. To prevent this from hapening, your phone offers you a variety of locks to keep meddling eyes away. But how secure are these locks?
Pin Codes
The most common lock type is the good old fashioned pin code. With an unlimited number of 0-9 combinations, surely nobody can guess the correct one… right? It would be secure, if not for most people’s lack of originality. You can easily tell a phone’s pin code based on their owner. It could be a birthday, a signficant (and obvious) date, or something so obvious like 0-0-0-0.
Pattern Locks
Pattern locks also provide a large amount of combinations to secure your phone. For convenience’s sake though, most people prefer simpler patterns. Who wants to do a complicated pattern sequence every single time you want to open your phone? No one, that’s who. Laziness trumps security each time, making pattern locks very unreliable without effort.
Facial Recognition
A feature on newer smartphones is facial recognition. The theory is unless you are the one facing the phone, it remains locked. Facial recognition is still not very reliable according to user reports worldwide. Some reports even say that mere photos of the owners can unlock their phones.
Fingerprint Scanner
Fingerprint scanners sound secure – after all, each person has their own unique print. The program behind these scanners however are far from perfect. They can ignore your own fingerprints, or they can accept just about anyone else’s to unlock.
Final Words
So what do you do? For the most part, it is all about effort. Creating harder pins and patterns may be hard, but it keeps your phone safe. Combining facial scans and fingerprints can also give a sturdier defense.