# Vulnerability of having everything on your phone **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456 "2022-12-13T15:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/21 "2022-12-13T16:35:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aside from the attempted robbery, it seems really foolish to have all of her graduate thesis work on the laptop, rather than in the cloud or a network drive. Came in here to say this. A friend and I wrote our theses 24 years ago, and made frequent backups and backups of our backups. Hard drives fail, laptops get dropped/stolen - and 24 years ago, Zip disks/drives were notorious for frequent failures. Can’t think of a good reason not to have backups of all of one’s precious files, either in the cloud or on a physically isolated/air-gapped drive. > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > What steps can a person take to protect themselves against the compromise of their phone and yet still take advantage of the convenience of mobile technology? Security through obscurity? Download dozens of apps, even if you don’t use them. Create a few folders, put several apps in each folder. Put a couple of folders in each folder. Bury your banking app(s) in one of those subsubfolders. When robbed, tell perps you don’t have banking apps because of assholes like them. They can look through your phone, but if you’ve buried the apps well enough, they won’t find them in the few minutes they’re willing to spend looking. Barring that, the usual advice applies: pay attention to your surroundings and put some thought into when/where you wander around in public. FWIW, the OP’s story is literally a “friend of a friend” story and sounds more like urban legend. Financial transactions can definitely be tracked down, whether they’re through a conventional bank or through PayPal. The latter will definitely claw your money back for you, and the former should be relatively cooperative as well. > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > She actually tracked down one of them because he was using her AirPods with a locator feature, but the police said, well, you can’t prove that he was actually one of the ones who robbed you. Apart from, you know, the friends who were purportedly robbed all being able to visually ID the guy. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/22 "2022-12-13T16:35:21Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > [@running\_coach](#): > > > > Because I don’t want to trudge down to the telegraph office just to post on The Dope. > > That’s what messenger pigeons are for. Duh! - > > Stranger My cats keep taking down the network. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/23 "2022-12-13T16:55:08Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Not to cast doubt here, but we are in “friend of a friend” territory here, which means the details (of which we have few) might not be correct. I can’t imagine a gunman trying to set up an actual bank transfer, which is neither quick or easy. Granted. I don’t know the details firsthand. The essential elements seemed to be “gun” and “get money”. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/24 "2022-12-13T18:51:29Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aside from the attempted robbery, it seems really foolish to have all of her graduate thesis work on the laptop, rather than in the cloud or a network drive. Oh, I agree. I assume she realized that and fixed it. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/25 "2022-12-13T20:13:35Z")
Samsung phones (at least some of them) have a “secure folder” feature, where apps and files can be put in a locked partition, so they can only be accessed after opening the secure area. That won’t prevent a robber from forcing you to open it and use the apps in there, but it will prevent the robber from finding any banking apps, even if they search for them. Even if you leave your phone at home, don’t install banking apps, or don’t even own a phone, you’re still vulnerable to having money extracted from you bank account by somebody with a gun: - Force you to reveal your pin (go ahead and lie, I know where you live) - Take you to an ATM - Steal your check book - Force you to login on the robber’s device and transfer money - Ransom - Extortion Sure, many of those are much more involved than making somebody open up Venmo, but the ease of using apps to transfer money is exactly why it is popular. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs\_Ducky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrs_ducky/32/6227_2.png) [@Mrs\_Ducky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs_Ducky)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/26 "2022-12-14T12:18:03Z")
I’m with you, Crane. My $42 Walmart flip phone works for me. It’s voice only. I don’t have a data plan on it. All the really important stuff is done on my home PC. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/27 "2022-12-14T12:29:43Z")
> [@Mrs\_Ducky](#): > > $42 Walmart flip phone works for me. Wow! I shoud’ve gone to Walmart. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/28 "2022-12-14T14:51:05Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > That’s what messenger pigeons are for. Duh! Someone beat me to the Purple Gang joke, so I’ll post this: [IP over Avian Carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers#:~:text=In%20computer%20networking%2C%20IP%20over,released%20on%20April%201%2C%201990.) ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/29 "2022-12-14T15:00:35Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > It’s just a phone! If by that you mean its only use is to make and receive phone calls, you are very obviously wrong. Unless you are talking about your own phone. But I really don’t think the OP is doing that. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/30 "2022-12-14T15:52:33Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > What steps can a person take to protect themselves against the compromise of their phone and yet still take advantage of the convenience of mobile technology? In response to the OP. one can obtain protection by using the phone for it’s primary function of communication and the personal computer for it’s application as an information management system. BTW: I liked your yellow house ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/31 "2022-12-14T16:05:30Z")
In some cases, a smartphone is only secondarily used as a phone. It’s also used as a camera, GPS, music player, video player, computer, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/32 "2022-12-14T16:11:45Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > BTW: I liked your yellow house Tell your friends! (thanks) ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/33 "2022-12-14T16:17:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In some cases, a smartphone is only secondarily used as a phone. It’s also used as a camera, GPS, music player, video player, computer, etc. Of course, but that has risk. Just as using a single computer has risk. The OP question was 'how to avoid risk;. The answer is diversity or just accept the risk. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/34 "2022-12-14T16:20:43Z")
His question is how to use your phone as a mobile computer while still saying safe. Your answer is like if he asked “How do I stay safe while driving a car” and you answered “Don’t drive.” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/35 "2022-12-14T16:21:47Z")
The answer to “How can I best protect the security of my phone” is not “Just don’t use a phone! duh!” That’s like some asking “How can I best protect my house from being robbed?” and you answer “Well just don’t live in a house! Duh!” You are just threadshitting. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/36 "2022-12-14T17:13:18Z")
There is a lot of info on my phone, but the specific situation cited wouldn’t apply to me – because I’m literally not the one that manages my money, so I have no banking access on my smartphone. If some armed robber tries to force me to transfer money, I’d be no more or less vulnerable than @Crane not having a smartphone at all. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/37 "2022-12-14T17:28:18Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > The answer to “How can I best protect the security of my phone” is not “Just don’t use a phone! duh!” > > That’s like some asking “How can I best protect my house from being robbed?” and you answer “Well just don’t live in a house! Duh!” I think it is more on the lines of this: > **[Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television](https://www.theonion.com/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-televisi-1819565469)** > > CHAPEL HILL, NC–Area resident Jonathan Green does not own a television, a fact he repeatedly points out to friends, family, and coworkers–as well as to his mailman, neighborhood convenience-store clerks, and the man who cleans the hallways in his... ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/38 "2022-12-14T20:42:31Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > BTW: I liked your yellow house I have no idea what you are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/39 "2022-12-14T21:01:44Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > Even if you leave your phone at home, don’t install banking apps, or don’t even own a phone, you’re still vulnerable to having money extracted from you bank account by somebody with a gun: > > - Force you to reveal your pin (go ahead and lie, I know where you live) > - Take you to an ATM > - Steal your check book > - Force you to login on the robber’s device and transfer money > - Ransom > - Extortion How often does this actually happen? I mean the odds of someone doing that to me is practically zero. Maybe if I were rich and well-known the odds could be higher. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456/40 "2022-12-14T21:04:52Z")
> [@TheCuse](#): > > How often does this actually happen? I mean the odds of someone doing that to me is practically zero. The odds of someone forcing you to use your phone to transfer them money is also practically zero. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vulnerability-of-having-everything-on-your-phone/976456.md?page=3)