At Callan Capital, we are committed to cybersecurity awareness, education, and training. We hope the following is helpful for you, your family, and your friends as a resource for cybercrime prevention, knowledge, and mitigation. This is part of a monthly cyber awareness series aimed at helping our clients avoid cybercrime.

Cell Phones and Smartwatches

1. Know how to immediately wipe your phone, smart speakers, and smartwatch, and, how to wipe data in the cloud

2. Maintain complex passwords and usernames for your smartwatch, smart speaker, phone, and other connected devices (internet-enabled doorbells, thermostats, and other smart devices)

  • Use biometrics and multifactor authentication
  • Constantly change your passwords and usernames for these devices for added security

3. Have a work phone that is separate from your personal phone and smartwatch

4. Regularly update your applications and software on your cell phone, smart speakers, and smartwatch

  • Is the app you are downloading legitimate?
  • How secure is it?
  • Is the developer responding to bad reviews?
  • Ask yourself if the permissions requested by the app make sense

5. Are your children/grandchildren accessing your phone and/or smartwatch?

  • Do they know not to open attachments, not to click on links, and would they recognize a fake in-app purchase request, for example?

“Apps”/applications on your phone pose a risk. The more apps you have, the greater the chances you may become breached or you download an already breached app. Ensure that you are downloading reputable apps by looking at the star ratings, scrolling through older reviews, noticing if the reviews are similar (computer generated), and checking the download count. Ideally, limit the number of apps you download.

When possible, keep your work phone separate from your personal phone and smartwatch. Phones are computers full of data that accompany you everywhere (even on vacation). We access work and personal e-mail, text, conduct personal and work business, use apps, make calls (think contacts and call history), play games, unlock cars, and take pictures on our phones which provides hackers with a lot of personal information about ourselves. Do you use your phone in public? Do you unlock your phone as you walk to your car? Cybercriminals look for these opportunities as an unlocked phone is easy to access.

Disclaimer: Callan Capital does not provide individual tax or legal advice, nor does it provide financing services. Clients should review planned financial transactions and wealth transfer strategies with their own tax and legal advisors. Callan Capital outsources to lending and financial institutions that directly provide our clients with, securities-based financing, residential and commercial financing and cash management services. For more information, please refer to our most recent Form ADV Part 2A which may be found at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.