Cell Phone Hacking

Best thing to do is to update everything frequently.

Are your smart phones easy targets for hacking at home? Why? Why not?

You should make sure your phones' updates are up-to-date.

The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes - and that your smart phone is always an easy target for hackers regardless of where you are. But, the easiest way to prevent hacking is to turn off the WIFI and Bluetooth when not being used. Also, do not connect to public WIFI and exchange personal information, regardless of how secure you think the web site being visited is.

My advise, if you want to use a smart phone in a foreign country, get a local pay-as-you-go SIM card. Cellular data communications are much harder to hack.

@Work2Travel Would I get the local sim card in Florence or do you know if can I get it here before I go?

@stephanie

For various reasons, it's really difficult to get new Italian SIM cards (TIM, WIND, Vodafone, etc) before you arrive in-country. However, it is quick, easy and inexpensive to acquire once you arrive.

Make sure you have an unlocked GSM quad-band capable smart phone. Don't let this terminology intimidate you as most GSM phones sold by U.S. telecoms in the last 8-10 years are unlocked for 'overseas' SIM cards and support all four GSM frequency bands. In fact, as I understand it, all Apple iPhone models since the v4S support GSM and accept a foreign SIM regardless of the carrier that sold you the phone. Just inquire with your phone's manufacturer or your carrier to make sure...

I have looked at the "travel phone" companies that sell "international" SIMs online and at airports in the U.S. and found their rates to be terribly high. It may be tempting to go with one of these companies for convenience but their per minute, per text and per MB of data rates are 100s of times higher than what you would pay for a local pay as you go plan.

@Work2Travel Thanks for the info!

Many people use their smartphone to check mail, post pictures, perhaps even do some online banking. Any of this done over wifi can expose your information to hackers. It isn't just at the coffee shop, either; hotels these days offer wifi to their guests and you are vulnerable there too.

You should normally have wifi disabled on your phone when travelling and turn it on only when you want to make a connection. When you do use wifi (at your hotel or elsewhere) it is a good idea to do so only over an encrypted connection called VPN. A VPN connection encrypts all the traffic to their server. A review of several VPN companies is at http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,1258856,00.asp I use Hotspot Shield but there are many other good choices.