Mobile operating systems have expanded from running exclusively on smartphones to include tablets and music players as well, making them available to a larger audience. These operating systems are responsible for maintaining a multitude of schedules, messages, calls, music, documents, applications, photos, videos, and other personal data with the goal of increasing efficiency. Because of this, developers of mobile operating systems have built in configuration options to these operating systems to better protect the device from security vulnerabilities. However, not all of these operating systems have such settings turned on when the device is pulled out of the box. Furthermore, not all users are aware of how to best protect their information, nor the kind of issues that should be considered when owning and using these devices. This paper suggests best practices for the three major mobile platforms -Android, BlackBerry, and iOS -to mitigate and/or prevent unauthorized access, loss of information, and loss of confidentiality.

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