Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Legal Nurse Consultants Get Colds – Droids Get Viruses
CLNC® consultants know how colds are spread, and thanks to my Tuesday Tech Tips, know that there are more germs on your smart phone than on a toilet seat. But did you know that no matter how clean you keep your legal nurse consulting smartphone, it can still spread viruses? I’m really talking about malware. One of the newest areas of computer insecurity is the smartphone because the miscreants who write malware and Trojan horses are now targeting the growing smartphone market. Phones running on the Android® platform are more susceptible than iPhones®. If you think of the amount of data related to your CLNC® business and your personal life that’s stored on your phone, not to mention passwords for your Facebook and other apps, you should be very afraid of having that data compromised. If you’re using your phone for mobile banking or micropayments, you definitely need to read this entire Tech Tip.
So far, iPhone users have been the safest. That’s good news. Part of what protects iPhone users is the centralized Apple App Store (although the occasional bad app does get through). The few iPhone viruses that were out there in the wild attacked jailbroken iPhones. So, as long as you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone and you only download your apps from the Apple App Store, you’ll be safer than the average bear. At the same time, there are no true antivirus apps that will run “in the background” protecting your iPhone as you roam, so just be careful.
However Android users are in a different world because Android-based phones are more often under attack by the bad guys. Android phone users: before you finish reading this blog, you should buy and install an antivirus program like WaveSecure from a reputable company like McAfee. If you’re cheap, oops I mean budget-conscious, you can download and install one of two free products: Lookout Mobile Security or Norton Mobile Security.
There you have it. Smart, Android-using Certified Legal Nurse Consultants now have three ways to protect their smartphones. Vickie likes to say “You can thank me later,” but you can thank me now (or after you’ve protected your phone).
I thought the ‘Droid phones are based on the Linux OS not windows. Granted, a smaller OS footprint would make things relatively easier than a full-blown Linux system, but still, the OS is hard to infect.
It’s both virus and malware infections that Android phones are susceptible to more than iPhones.
Any Android user should protect their phone before it’s too late.
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The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
Keep on techin’,
What about security for blackberries?
Suzanne, a quick reading of the Official Blackberry Forums tells me that you should have nothing to worry about.
However to be safe, go to http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/General-Support-Forums/ct-p/GeneralSupportForums and search for “virus” under your particular model.
Tom,
I thought the ‘Droid phones are based on the Linux OS not windows. Granted, a smaller OS footprint would make things relatively easier than a full-blown Linux system, but still, the OS is hard to infect.
It’s both virus and malware infections that Android phones are susceptible to more than iPhones.
Any Android user should protect their phone before it’s too late.