Prepaid Mobile Services Are Popular and So Is Prepaid Mobile Security
By Colleen LeCount, Mobolize | CRO
At first glance, prepaid service on the mobile phone is just about getting data, talk and text without the usual high cost and annual mobile operator service contract. But there’s more. Add-on services can be included that entertain, insure and protect the experience.
Wi-Fi security is popular. In fact, very popular. One of our partners offering prepaid service has seen significant growth in add-on security for its users who seek data privacy. This has increased greatly with the almost overnight change to working and learning from home earlier this year. The coronavirus is still with us worldwide, so this new mobile device usage pattern is expected to continue for a while, and so will Wi-Fi security issues.
The Work/Learn from Home trend increased mobile device usage for employees and students. The problem is keeping these devices secure, which is a complex task. Strategies like Zero Trust for businesses and Google G Suite for Education are good, but don’t always protect devices when on Wi-Fi. Yet Wi-Fi can be a common connection for users, especially those who are price sensitive as public Wi-Fi is often free. Yet free Wi-Fi networks are usually unsecured. That means social media, emails and texts are vulnerable to malicious actors.
Those malicious actors can do things like set up fake access points in public locations such as coffee shops. What looks like a connection to a company’s Wi-Fi network can be a cybercriminal’s rogue hotspot that gives them access to anything a user does online.
A common security issue is phishing attacks because mobile devices are always powered on. A user that opens up an unfamiliar email link from an unknown sender (a common thing to do on a mobile device) is vulnerable to a bad actor getting access to files on the mobile device. Files like personal banking or other private information such as passwords. Access to corporate information on the device can enable even greater damage to be done. The user may not even know it is happening because the theft is happening in the background.
The same can be done through text messages that have a malicious link the user opens. This is called a SMiShing attack.
These types of attacks can happen on any Wi-Fi network. This is why our prepaid service partners have seen an increase in the number of customers adding Wi-Fi security as a value-added service.
The Wi-Fi security app is easy to use. The app is downloaded from the Apple iOS or Android app stores. For just $2 a month, users benefit from Mobolize’s SmartVPN® technology deployed on their mobile devices. It automatically encrypts the users’ data when on any Wi-Fi network with minimal impact on device performance, including almost no battery drain, latency or broken apps like streaming services.
Prepaid users demand the same privacy and protection as any other mobile phone users. In fact, they can be even more vulnerable than postpaid users as our research shows they use more Wi-Fi. And for $2 a month, it’s a safe bargain.