Some iPhone mistakes can lead you down the road to battery drainage. Losing battery power quickly is annoying, of course, but the problem can be remedied easily — grab a better charger and charging cables and focus on giving your phone shorter burst of charging instead of longer charging sessions.
Other iPhone mistakes are more serious. The one dreaded situation every iPhone user wants to avoid like the plague is having their phone hacked. Once your device is hacked, the headache has only just begin. You may not know it has been hacked for several days or weeks, at which point the hacker has had time to steal personal, confidential data such as banking information and personal identification info. You can avoid hacking nightmares by keeping really good tabs on your phone and not making the most common mistakes that can make you more vulnerable to malicious players.
This video provides excellent tips on how to tell that your phone has been hacked (and what to do about it). But which mistakes could you be making right now that open you up to hackers? These two mistakes are among the most common and tech experts say they can lead to hackers.
1. Not Updating Software
When Apple detects a bug or vulnerability in its iOS software, it issues an update to correct the problem. These updates happen frequently — which should be an indicator of how easily and often problems can be found. It’s up to you to stay on top of the updates and make sure you’re updating your iPhone whenever necessary. But here’s the dilemma: you’re busy. You may easily miss an update if you aren’t looking for it. That’s why Apple has created a helpful setting that will alert you to automatic updates so that you have one less thing to think about.
Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates. Enable Automatic Updates.
2. Using Weak Passwords
There’s no getting around this one: if you’re using weak passwords that can be easily decoded, you’re more vulnerable to hackers. Weak passwords include names of people you know, birthdays, and anniversaries. Most websites require a complex blend of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, but it’s still important to not rely on personal information in your passwords. It’s also crucial that you don’t reuse the same passwords for more than one website. If you have trouble keeping track of so many passwords, use a password manager to help you.
And, whenever possible, enable two-factor authentication so that websites require two forms of proof that you are who you claim to be. The 2FA setting makes websites send a code to your phone or email that you’ll have to plug in, along with your regular password. To turn this setting on, go to Settings > [your name] > Sign-In & Security. Tap Turn On Two-Factor Authentication, then tap Continue.
