You will run a security check on your own phone and fix what you find.
Pick up your phone and count the apps you installed in the last six months. Most people guess low. There's the one for a single concert, the one a shop made you download for a voucher, the one you tried for a week and forgot. Each of them has some level of access to your phone, and you probably can't say what that is.
This exercise fixes that. You'll go through your phone with a checklist, remove what you don't need, close the settings that malware relies on and lock the door with a screen lock. It takes about twenty-five minutes the first time, and much less once you know where the settings are. Then you'll do the same for one family member, which is where the exercise often matters most.
The steps below are written for Android, because that's where lessons 6.1 and 6.2 showed the biggest risks. If you use an iPhone, follow the same order: review recent apps, remove remote access tools you don't use, check updates and set a passcode. Menu names vary by phone brand and software version, so if you can't find a setting, type its name into the search bar at the top of Settings.
Copy this list into a note or onto paper. You'll tick each line as you go.
Recent apps: every app installed in the last six months reviewed, and anything unrecognised or unused removed. Permissions: apps with accessibility access, display over other apps, SMS access and device admin rights listed, and any that don't need them removed or stripped of the permission. Unknown sources: installing unknown apps turned off for every app. Updates: automatic updates on for the operating system and for apps. Screen lock: a PIN, password, fingerprint or face recognition set, and banking apps behind it.
Start with recent apps. Open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then go to manage apps and device. You can sort installed apps by most recently updated or installed, or scroll through the full list in Settings under apps. For each app from the last six months, ask two questions: do I know what this is, and have I used it in the past month? If the answer to either is no, uninstall it. If an app refuses to uninstall, or the uninstall button is greyed out, note it down. That usually points to the next step.
Next, check permissions. There are four places to look. Accessibility, usually in Settings under accessibility, shows a list of installed services. Display over other apps, sometimes called appear on top, is usually under apps and then special app access. SMS access is under permissions, where you can see every app allowed to read messages. Device admin apps are usually under security, and these are apps that can lock or wipe the phone and resist being removed. Malware often asks for this so you can't uninstall it.
For each app on each list, decide whether it has a genuine reason to be there, using the mismatch rule from lesson 6.2, The permissions that should make you stop. Your messaging app reading SMS is fine. A food delivery app with accessibility access isn't. Turn off the permission, or uninstall the app. If you find an app you don't recognise with device admin rights, remove its admin rights first, then uninstall it.
Then turn off unknown sources. Go to special app access and find install unknown apps. Check every app listed, including your browser, WhatsApp, Telegram and file manager, and make sure each one is set to not allowed.
After that, turn on automatic updates. In the Play Store settings, set apps to update automatically. In Settings, find software update or system update, check for any pending update and install it, and turn on automatic downloads if your phone offers it.
Finally, check your screen lock. If your phone opens with a swipe, set a PIN of at least six digits, or a password, and add fingerprint or face recognition on top if you like. Then make sure your banking apps ask for your fingerprint, face or PIN each time they open. Most do this by default, but check in each app's security settings.
Here is an illustration of one completed audit. The person and apps are made up.
Hui Min, 32, finds 14 apps installed in the last six months. She recognises 11 and still uses six. She uninstalls eight, and two of those were a parking app from a trip to Johor Bahru and a voucher app for a single mall event. One app, with a shopping-bag icon and a generic deals name, she doesn't remember installing at all.
Under accessibility, she finds her phone's own screen reader, switched off, and the deals app, switched on. Under display over other apps, she finds her video player and the deals app again. Under device admin apps, the same app appears. That's three high-risk permissions on an app she doesn't recognise. She removes its admin rights, uninstalls it, and makes a note to call her bank's hotline and check her recent transactions.
Under install unknown apps, her browser is set to allowed. She remembers allowing it once to install the deals app from a link. She turns it off.
Automatic updates were already on for apps, but her phone had a system update waiting for three weeks. She installs it. Her screen lock was already a fingerprint with a PIN backup.
Total time: about twenty minutes, and one dangerous app removed that she'd never have found by looking at her home screen.
Your parent or older relative is likely to have more forgotten apps and fewer habits for checking them. Sit with them and go through the list together, with them holding the phone. Explain each step as you go, so they can repeat it later. Don't uninstall anything without asking, even if it looks pointless to you.
If you find something like Hui Min's deals app, help them call their bank's hotline straight away. Use the number on the back of their card.
Your own phone comes first, then theirs. Have your checklist ready and work through every line before you tick it.
Complete the phone audit checklist, fix every issue, and run the same check on one family member's phone.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).