Digital Clutter? How you endanger yourself with digital clutter on your device
Digital clutter is a phenomenon that increasingly plagues modern digital devices.
Digital clutter is a phenomenon that
increasingly plagues modern digital devices. A recent research by IT security
firm Kaspersky Lab reveals that user attitude towards app care and maintenance
on their devices is making sensitive data on computers and tablets particularly
vulnerable to security threats.
The study reveals that keeping control of the
content on their devices is a task that users tend to avoid. Just 50% of users
revise the content on their computers and tablets on a regular basis but as
many as two in three (63%) people do this on their smartphones. This is because
smartphones have less memory than computers and tablets. In fact, 35% of users
have deleted apps on their smartphones due to lack of storage, whereas only 13%
of users on computers have done the same.
According to the Kaspersky Lab research, a
quarter of users don’t remember when they last uninstalled an application from
their computers, while this figure goes down to 12% for smartphones. This has
led to a situation where a third of applications on user computers are
completely redundant— they are never used, but stay on the hard disk taking up
space and potentially running in the background, putting sensitive information
at risk.
All of our devices store sensitive data, and
they should therefore be maintained in the same way. However, the research
shows us that users do not treat their devices equally. The survey found that
65% of users update apps on their smartphones as soon as they are released,
providing them with the latest security patches and updates. By contrast, users
are less likely to update apps on tablets and computers, with just 42% and 48%,
respectively, updating apps as soon as possible.
As a result of this behaviour, users are
risking a range of problems associated with a buildup of digital clutter on
their devices—particularly on their computers. Kaspersky Lab statistics show us
that users face malware on their computers more than other devices (28%
compared to 17% on smartphones). Worryingly, the study has found a
contradiction in user attitudes towards their devices and the threats they face
on those devices. According to the survey, despite users’ risky attitudes to
managing clutter on computers and the greater threat of malware infections on
these devices, most respondents still consider computers to be the safest place
for their data.
“The digital devices we use every day store
precious data that users don’t want to fall into the wrong hands or lose due to
a device crashing or malware infection,” says Andrei Mochola, head of consumer
business at Kaspersky Lab. “Combating digital clutter requires users to take
action managing, cleaning and updating apps across all devices in their household.
Care and maintenance should be a priority in your digital life as in the
physical world, in order to keep the hackers at bay.”
In order to keep digital devices safe, users
are advised to take the following steps:
Update apps:
Update apps as soon as new versions are released because they might include
security patches that prevent or reduce vulnerabilities in the app,
Clean apps:
Improperly managed smartphone apps also represent a security threat because
they often transmit data even when they’re not being used,
Change app settings:
These enable the user to manage how the app interacts with the device. For
example, apps can get access to user sensitive information, track user
locations and share user data with third party servers. Failure to manage these
settings can result in unused apps gaining access to information on the device
without the user being aware,
Use specialist software:
Install specialist software that can help to distinguish apps behaving
suspiciously and those that are not used, as well as those which need to be
updated.
Source | Financial Express | 13 April 2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Upcoming Event | MANLIBNET 17th Annual
International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida, India
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