Windows
A simple trick for Windows is to merely place your sensitive information within a folder and then mark the folder as ‘hidden,’ which will hide it within the file explorer. To hide a folder, right click on the folder and select the properties option. Once the properties dialogue is open, ensure there is a checkmark next to the hidden label – that’s all there is to this method! When you want to view that hidden folder, simply select the view tab within the file explorer and check the option to display hidden items.

Read More: 3 Private Messenger Apps That’ll Keep It Confidential

MacOS
The process isn’t as easy on Mac and does involve a bit of time in the Terminal application. If you’re unfamiliar with using Terminal, we suggest checking out a quick tutorial first. Start by opening the Terminal app from your Applications folder and navigate to the directory in which your folder is placed. Once you are within the proper directory type the following command, followed by the enter key,’ to hide the folder: “chflags hidden [name of folder].” For example, if we have a folder named ‘photos’ which we want to keep hidden, we would type: “chflags hidden photos.”

Android
Due to the open nature of the Android platform, one of the best options for hiding sensitive data is a third-party solution. One such option is dfndr vault, an app that easily allows you to create a hidden gallery of photos and videos; it even offers a feature known as applock, which can prevent access to certain apps by letting you add a secure passcode. No need to worry anymore about friends snooping around your Tinder profile or co-workers discovering embarrassing snapshots. Android users can also take advantage of dfndr performance, which has a ‘quick cleaner’ feature to remove any private information that might be in your device’s temporary files.

iOS
If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, you can choose to add your private photos or videos to a ‘hidden gallery’ built into the device. Simply visit your Photo app and navigate to the media you wish to hide, once there tap the share button (the square with the upward facing arrow), and select hide from the menu. The photo you just chose to hide will no longer be viewable from the main camera roll or any of the adjacent photo features. To view the private collection, head to your albums and locate the folder named Hidden. Sadly this option won’t keep the most curious of individuals out, but it will prevent any private images from popping up while scrolling through your camera roll.

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Read More: 5 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Smartphone’s Internet Speed

Read more to learn which 5 best apps your dad deserves on Father’s Day.

Get Dad to Download StubHub
One of the most popular apps of the last 5 years has been StubHub, which compares ticket prices from various websites in order to find your dad the best deal. Whatever his musical taste or favorite sport may be, StubHub can be tailored to find tickets for the right event on any given night. The app can be linked to your dad’s Spotify, plus it can connect to various e-payment platforms to ensure every transaction is hassle-free.

Help Dad Find His Dream Home
If your father is on the hunt for some new real estate, Zillow.com will help him find a more comfortable home for the entire family. The home search app has an intuitive and logical user interface to search for the ideal home based on your dad’s price range. It can also help him sell his current home by valuing properties in his neighborhood.

For the BBQ Hero of Your Life
If your dad loves to grill meats, check out hundreds of recipes on the Weber Grills app. Each recipe has step-by-step instructions, a built-in grill timer, and a grocery list feature to keep your father’s grilling days organized.

When Your Dad is Mad About Sports
Perhaps the hottest sports app at the moment is Bleacher Report, which offers timely scores and news in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and just about any sport imaginable. The app can be programmed to fit your dad’s interests so he gets notified of the latest stats for his favorite teams.

Improve Your Dad’s Mobile Performance
The best app for optimizing your dad’s mobile device is dfndr performance, which has a quick cleanup feature that gets rid of old files that could be slowing down his phone. It also has an app manager function to remove unused apps he no longer needs. A memory booster feature can enhance his device’s RAM speed as well. After all, you have to help him make room for all these awesome apps.

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Read More: Is WhatsApp Using too Much Space on Your Phone?

Using dfndr performance’s WhatsApp cleaner is one way to streamline your connections. The app can help you get rid old files such as videos, audio messages, GIFs, and images that no longer serve you. Besides considering a good cleaner app, there are many ways to use WhatsApp more effectively.

Focus On Why You’re Using the App
If your WhatsApp has plenty of messages that you haven’t touched, try to decide what’s priority and why you’re using the app. If you have business obligations and you’ve got personal messages, focus on your business needs before turning your mind to home-mode. Likewise, if you’re out with friends, don’t use WhatsApp to discuss business.

Get Rid of Automatic Downloads
While it may be tempting to check out every funny image, video, or GIF that comes your way, change your settings so you can filter them. With WhatsApp, you can choose to turn off automatic downloads, which helps block random messages that contain images from people you don’t know very well. Beware: a message that only has an image and no text could be malware.

Response Time On Replies
You don’t need to open every message that comes your way, but when you do open one, answer it right away because you might forget to later on. Plus, if the person on the other side sees the ‘read’ receipt, they may think you’re ignoring them rather than saving the conversation for later. Be proactive, but also be picky about what messages you open.

Last Tips and Tricks
Sending a message to multiple people is easy, all you have to do is click the ellipsis and choose to broadcast a message, and then decide who to broadcast to. You can also reduce data usage if you’re in another country or in a low-data zone by clicking ‘low data usage’ in your WhatsApp settings. Plus, you can mute chats and groups that are too noisy at any given point.

Heed these practical tips and you’ll be on the right path to communicating effectively with your friends and family on WhatsApp.

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Here’s why overcharging your phone is a no-no and could have lasting negative effects.

Read More: Why Does Your Phone Notify You When It’s Fully Charged

Avoid ‘Trickle Charges’
Most modern phones are equipped with lithium-ion batteries and charging capabilities that are more efficient than regular rechargeable batteries. This means that once they reach 100%, your charger will stop fueling your device. However, if you leave your phone charged overnight, it will lose bits of battery here and there, resulting in “trickle charges” that ensures your device stays at 100%.

Constantly charging your phone over the course of hours slowly reduces battery life capacity, so it’s wise to avoid this practice. Having a high voltage will stress the battery unnecessarily.

Other Smart Charging Practices
You also shouldn’t wait until your device reaches 0% to charge because that can harm the battery. To optimize battery life, wait until the battery is down to around 35% to 40% before charging. Also, consider replacing your phone every few years to avoid dealing with these issues. if you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford to buy a phone that frequently, the right charging practices can add mileage to your current phone.

Choose the Right Adapter and Charger
When shopping for a charger, you can learn a lot about how it will affect your phone based on the amp rating. The ideal rating is 5.0V->1A, which refers to how quickly your phone will charge; higher amp ratings charge faster, while lower ones charge slower. With a 1A charger, your phone will charge at the optimal speed to help keep your battery life strong in the long term.

Get Performance-Enhancing Software
Finally, the right app can ensure that your phone fires on all cylinders. With dfndr performance’s total charge feature, you’ll be notified when the charging process is complete and can unplug your phone. The feature also has a charger monitor screen that activates once you connect to a charger, letting you know how long a full charge will take.

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But if you’ve had enough, whipping your smartphone back into shape is simple and that’s where dfndr performance can help. With a quick cleanup feature, your junk files can be removed with ease by scanning your SD card, trash, cache, and temporary files to free up space on your device.

Let us show you why those files are slowing your Android device down and how to take care of it quickly.

Why Your Phone Seems So Dang Slow
A vital question to first address is wasn’t your smartphone designed to store a high number of files and photos? In short, yes, your smartphone is indeed equipped to handle a specific number of files. Smartphone manufacturers release different models that vary in capacity, so it’s always important to make a selection based on how much data you plan to store. However, a bit of extra room should still be available for the phone system itself.

Read More: These 5 File Types Are Using up All of Your Phone’s Memory

When you choose a function on your phone, such as opening an app or shooting an HD video, your device needs extra space to process temporary information.The system needs to search for somewhere it can save data as it works, so if space is limited, the system might be fighting other apps that also need storage on your device.

When your smartphone saves a photograph or video, it must first be split up into different pieces. Your phone’s internal memory does not always have free areas right next to one another on the disc. As a result, your device may cut up data into smaller pieces and spread it around as it sees fit. This process can cause what is called “fragmentation”, which slows down your device as it attempts to find all the various pieces it needs.

Be Proactive About That Deadweight
If you’re worried about the state of your smartphone, start cleaning out any old, duplicate photos that you might have. Old applications that you no longer use might also be taking up quite a bit of space. Take the time to take care of your smartphone, and in return, it will provide a speedy and quick experience when you most need it.

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Perhaps it’s time to opt for a storage app like dfndr vault, which allows you to lockdown apps, keep photos or videos private by encrypting them and saving them to a cloud storage of your choice. You can even add an extra layer of privacy with biometric recognition.

If you want to ensure your photos and videos stay safe for specific eyes only, here are a few suggestions:

Delete Extra Content
Start by making your tracks less noticeable. Delete any duplicate intimate photos or videos that may be stored on your smartphone. Sure, this won’t necessarily hide any of your content away, but having a single picture of a moment beats having 7 different snapshots scattered in your library. Just as you should keep your phone clean and tidy, be sure to delete duplicates to reduce your NSFW footprint.

Read More: Protect Your Private Photos in a Private Gallery

Disable Google Photo Sync
Android devices include a nifty feature that will automatically backup your photos and videos to the cloud once you connect to Wi-Fi. These backups can be performed to iCloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive. While an excellent solution for making sure your favorite holiday photos are stored, if your smartphone houses a mini boudoir you may not want the service active. To disable having your photos automatically backed up to the cloud, head to your device’s settings and locate ‘Auto Backup,’ there you can disable the backup functionality that may give away your little secret to the cloud.

Hide Your Photos Deep Within
If you don’t mind getting a bit technical and opening up a file manager on your device, you can create a hidden folder for storing NSFW content. Open your file manager of choice, create a new folder with a name that begins with a period (.), and move all of your photos and videos to this new location. The Gallery app on Android will ignore any folders that begin with a period, so this is a clever way to keep your private photos out of the main photo app – simply use the file manager to access the images.

Add That Secure Passcode
Finally, and we repeat it all the time, add a secure passcode to unlock your device. Merely head to ‘Settings’ and seek out your ‘Unlock Security’ settings. We recommend avoiding easy to guess pattern or pins. Try utilizing a code that is at least six digits, doesn’t repeat, and isn’t a combination that’s easy to guess – such as your birthdate.

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We’re going to cover some of the standard internal Android settings you can activate to keep your device safe, but first – how do you also keep online data leaving your device secure? Using a VPN such as dfndr vpn, can ensure that anytime you access the Internet, your activities are encrypted until it reaches its final destination. Personal VPN solutions prevent snoops from seeing your IP, even your ISP won’t be able to track what you’re viewing whether it’s “meme of the day” or your private bank account information.

Read More: If Your Phone is Lost or Stolen, Here’s What You Do

Now let’s look at three Android settings that can keep your phone even more locked down.

Securing From the Get-Go
One of the most straightforward Android settings that’s often  overlooked is merely enabling the screen lock functionality. Found under the ‘Security and Location’ tab in your smartphone, you can enable a PIN, pattern, or passcode that’s required when waking the device. The first line of defense against an intruder accessing your phone is easy to implement and many manufacturers are making the ability more convenient with fingerprint or facial identification.

Go Ahead, Encrypt That Data
If you’re ready to take the next step, it’s essential that you enable the ‘Encrypt Phone’ function found under the ‘Security and Locations’ tab on your device. While a passcode will keep the casual thief at bay, your data is not entirely protected if someone attempts to connect your phone to a computer and access the information. Turning on the encryption function means that every private moment and piece of information on your phone is locked down until you enter a passcode. It’s worth noting that some older phones decrease in performance when the feature is enabled, so if yours is a few years old, this might be a hindrance rather than an advantage.

Don’t Let Data Slip Out
Securing your device could be a waste if the information you’re securing merely appears on the lock screen, which is easily seen by a thief. If you don’t want your private messages or other notifications displayed use the ‘Hide Sensitive Notification Content’ option under the ‘Sound and Notifications’ tab. By activating this setting, your lock screen will show notifications from specific applications, but won’t show the content until your phone is unlocked.

Use these handy settings to ensure you’re the only one to see what’s on your phone.

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Read More: Should You Cover the Camera on Your Smartphone?

Developers noticed these new changes in the Android P focus on apps in the background, known as idle applications, will now be unable to access content from the microphone or camera systems. Google notes the feature notes is in place to ‘protect user’s privacy.’ While you wait for the latest release of Android to add an extra barrier of security, there are some easy precautions you can take with your existing OS.

Keep Your Eye On App Permissions
When an application presents you with a pop-up, don’t just hit okay and continue on. Take the time to read the message displayed to you. In many circumstances, an Android app may be asking for permission to access certain parts of the system. This can involve your contacts, photo library, and even your camera and microphone.

Carefully note what permissions an application is asking for and use common sense when doling out access. For example, a calendar app most likely doesn’t need to access your microphone, and a video game doesn’t need to access your contact book.

Lockdown Sensitive Apps
Your smartphone passcode is your first line of defense, but what if it were to fail? Or, what if you were to hand your phone to a friend so that they could make a call and keeping your apps safe is a concern. Consider using a solution such as dfndr security’s applock feature, which allows you to create an additional passcode, or use a scanned fingerprint when opening certain apps. Best of all, you get to choose which apps to hide or not.

Security apps that add a second level of authentication is an excellent way to protect your banking apps and other sensitive information.

Always Keep Your Device Updated
Lastly, and most important, be sure to keep your device updated with the latest available software. While Google may only issue massive updates once a year that doesn’t mean the apps you use or the phone manufacturer doesn’t prompt you to update.

Take the appropriate steps to ensure that your phone’s operating system current and check the Google Play Store to guarantee all of your apps have the latest patches. New vulnerabilities and threats happen quickly so the best way to stay safe is to stay ahead.

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It’s critical to ensure that not only does your SIM card remain protected, but also your data. One solution is dfndr security, which allows you to secure apps on your device and includes an advanced protection feature if your device is ever lost or stolen. With the advanced protection feature activated, hackers aren’t able to remove the dfndr security program without authentication, which means your personal information is kept safe.

Read More: What to Do After You’ve Lost Your SIM Card

How to Lock Down Your SIM
The most straightforward way to obtain someone’s SIM card would be to steal the actual card. Once the thief then places the card into their device, they would begin to receive all of your phone calls, text messages, and other associated data. If you once felt your Google account was protected by an SMS two-factor authentication code, bad news — your attacker now has access too. To defend against this type of cyberattack, you can opt to lock your SIM card with a pin number to prevent tampering.

Secure Your Cellular Account
However, we mentioned that someone could gain access to your phone number and efficiently take over your SIM card without being anywhere near your phone — how is this possible? One of the biggest scams currently circulating is for a hacker to call your phone provider, impersonate you, and have a new SIM card issued that they could utilize. However, cell carriers are identifying these scams and alerting their customers, such as TMobile recently did with a bulletin that was largely circulated.

The easiest way to protect your cellular account is to call your provider and tell them you wish to add a passcode to your account, which is separate from login details used for your provider’s website. This extra passcode prevents imposters from calling customer service and requesting a new SIM card because he or she would have to provide a password to access account details.

Have a Backup Solution
With these tips and tricks, your device should remain safe, but it also helps to have every layer of additional security in place. One precaution you could take advantage of is using dfndr security’s anti-theft feature, which allows you to prevent thieves from accessing your content. Once you notice your device is missing, you can use a computer to track, block, locate, or even erase all of your data remotely.

Try to take smart security steps. The best you can do is to set up a tight defense before you become a digital victim.

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Read More: Dangerous New Android Malware Discovered

What This Malware Does to Androids
The two pieces of malware are known as HARDRAIN and BADCALL and they are capable of installing a remote access tool (RAT) payload on Android devices. The technology can make the affected Windows systems work as a proxy server that can gather information from your device.

The Hidden Cobra viruses can record your phone calls, take over your camera and take screenshots of your device, read data from the contact manager, download and upload data from your device, plus it can execute commands and check for open Wi-Fi channels. Hackers can later use this information to blackmail you as it gives them the capabilities to make your personal information public.

HARDRAIN: Part One
The two federal departments wrote that HARDRAIN is comprised of three executable files that install malware on your Android device. Two of these are dynamic link library (DLL) executables that alter your Windows Firewall in order to allow incoming malicious connections from cybercriminals to breach your device.

In essence, these files open up the door for malicious files masked as secure HTTPS sessions that appear to be legitimate to enter your device. The third file on HARDRAIN is an Executable Linkable Format (ELF) file that links up to hard-coded IP addresses and serves as a RAT program, paving the way for a further invasion of your privacy and exposing your personal data.

BADCALL: Part Two
The other piece of malware is BADCALL, which also uses three files to tap into your phone. Two of these are also Windows executables that disarm your firewall by altering a registry key. After doing so, BADCALL also turns the infected systems into proxy servers. These files allow illicit communication channels to reach your device in the form of encrypted HTTPS traffic.

Rounding up the three files that make up BADCALL, there is an Android Package Kit (APK) that also acts as a RAT program that can access your personal information, record sensitive conversations, capture text messages and screenshots through your device’s camera.

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