How to Protect Your Smartphone From Cyber-Flashing Attacks

Here’s how you can fight Cyber-flashing and protect yourself from any such vulnerabilities

Smartphones

The British Transport Police recently received a reported case on Cyber-Flashing from a Lorraine Crighton-Smith, a 34 year old female commuting by train. Ms. Crighton-Smith reported that she was continuously receiving explicit images on the smartphone during her train commute in South London when she realized someone within the train had been constantly sending her the explicit images.

Ms. Crighton-Smith reported that the image showed up on her Apple iPhone via the Air Drop feature as she was using the feature previously to share pictures with another iPhone user. The act of Cyber-Flashing prevails in developing and developed countries and has become more frequent due to advancement of technology. An underlying reason for such vulnerability is because some smartphones users are unaware of any open access points such as Air-Drop or Open Bluetooth Access. Cyber-flashing can easily be declined; however such inappropriate acts would be very threatening towards underage commuters such as children.

Thus the BTP authority has opened up to any such crimes asking victims of such sexual harassment to come forward and provide more details about the crime. The authority also said that the probability of such an act happening again is very likely, thus victims should report such cases for appropriate actions to take place.

The authority also stated that Cyber-Flashing needs to be taken more seriously as it legally covers under the case of sexual harassment. Knowing that even today in the 21st century, sexual harassment prevails in developed and developing countries, it is important for users of such technology to know what actions to take if such an event occurs.

That being said, it’s important for users to understand how such technology works to protect themselves from such uninvited files. For instance, Apple users need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access the quick menu and switch off the Air Drop feature. Similarly, Google Android users need to be more vigilant about their Bluetooth settings and Wi-Fi settings being off.

Users connected to a wearable device, such as Android Wear or even the iPhone watch, switching off Bluetooth would prevent them from using their wearable device. Such users could use the option of making their device hidden from being discovered in the Bluetooth menu preventing other devices from discovering and connecting to the device.