List of must have security apps for your mobile [ 2018 ]

Mobile security is increasingly important. We all keep plenty of data on our phones, and some of that data is either personal or sensitive. From the credit card info that’s attached to your Amazon app, to the login data from your banking app, there stuff that we just don’t want other people to know. Or maybe your web browsing history isn’t quite as squeaky clean as it should be. Getting the right kind of security apps for your mobile is essential, but which ones should you choose?

We’re looking for apps that increase the security on your phone. Useful apps. We’ve dismissed anti-virus or malware apps from this list, since there are tons of them as well as plenty of resources telling you which are the best. So we’re looking at more specialised apps. In addition, a couple of our choices aren’t marketed as security apps as such, they simply have a side effect of increasing security. But if you’re looking to make your data secure, then these are the apps you should think about downloading.

We’re starting out with a no brainer here. Find My Device is by far one of the most useful security apps around. Originally using the name Android Device Manager, Find My Device is a simply little app that tracks your phone. That’s useful if you’ve lost your mobile, had it stolen, or simply can’t remember where it is. You just head to the Find My Device web page on your computer and you’ll get a little blip on a map telling you where your phone is.

But that’s not the real reason we’ve chosen Find My Device. Because the app also has extra features. It allows you to remotely lock your phone, so if you happen to have left it at the office no one can pick it up and get your data. It also allows you to remotely wipe your phone, so if it has been stolen you can erase all that personal data with the press of a button and thieves will never get hold of it. Find My Device is free, and is an absolute essential if you’ve got a mobile phone.

We all know how much data websites collect about us, and if that thought bothers you, then DuckDuckGo should be one of the first apps that you download. It’s a free, super secure web browser that doesn’t track your web history. It’s sort of like constantly browsing in incognito mode. Once you exit the app, it will no longer remember anything about your last web session. It’s a basic browser and doesn’t have many features other than privacy, but it’s great at what it does. It’s also free, though there are some (non-intrusive) ads.

Haven is a very unique addition to this list, but also a very cool one. Essentially, it lets you turn a secondary device into a security phone. You download Haven onto an old mobile that you no longer use and that mobile will become your security device (you will need a SIM card for certain notifications so your best bet is looking for a low cost rolling sim only deal). It will record sound through the phone’s microphone, it detects light (if someone opens a door, or opens your luggage, for example). And if you stick that secondary phone into your suitcase or handbag it will set off an alarm when that case or bag is moved. Okay, it’s pretty specialised, but it’s also free and could be a great addition for frequent travellers.

If you’re serious about security, then a password manager is a must, and LastPass is the grand-daddy of them all. It stores your individual passwords, so you don’t have to remember all of them (thus encouraging you to use different passwords for different sites, as well as longer, more complicated and therefore more secure passwords). It will also generate super secure passwords for you. It syncs across platforms, so it’ll work on your computer too. And it’s free. There’s a pro version available, but the free version should do everything that the average user needs. Having a password isn’t enough to ensure security. Having a password manager is.

A VPN isn’t just an excuse to be able to watch US Netflix from the UK, or to hide your illegal streaming activity. A good VPN will hide everything you do, from inputting a password into a site, to your web browser history. And ProtonVPN, despite being pretty new, is an excellent choice. It’s free, and has full encryption, so anything you do on your mobile whilst the VPN is switched on will be scrambled. The disadvantage here is that speeds on your phone will be a little slower with a VPN switched on, but that’s a small price to pay for complete privacy.

Resilio Sync is another fairly unique app. In basic terms, it allows you to create your own cloud storage system. Let’s say that someone sends you a sensitive document on your phone. You want to be able to back up that document, but you don’t want to send such sensitive info to your DropBox or G Drive account. Resilio Sync creates a cloud of storage on your home computer. So you can back up that document from your phone straight to your own PC without it going through the cloud first. Now that’s security. Resilio Sync is free.

Finally, if you want to send text messages in absolute privacy you actually have a few options. But with the drama surrounding Facebook, WhatsApp (owned by FB) might not be your first choice anymore. And that’s where Signal Private Messenger comes in. Complete end to end encryption of your messages, group messaging, the ability to have messages disappear after a certain amount of time, and absolutely zero data storing in the app, this is the king of private messaging. It’s free, and the only real downside is that you’ll have to persuade all your friends to download the app too.