Intro to security for Android

First and foremost you’re going to want to root your phone to be able to grant root access to a handful of applications that we will be talking about in this guide. You can find tutorials on how to do this by searching how to root your model of phone on google.
With rooting your phone you and overclock your phone, or add new ROMs to further personalize or phone or get better performance, but for this guide we’re only going to use it for system wide security.

Before root:

Back up anything that isn’t saved to your Google profile. You can check your GMail contact list at gmail.com to see if your contacts are backed up. Also look at your settings  to confirm that your media (pictures, videos, and music [If you’re not using google music  this would be a great time to sign up for it: music.google.com/ ]) The process of rooting your phone will result in deleting all data. Any paid apps will be able to be redownloaded   after signing into your Google profile.

Always encrypt first:

On stock vanilla Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich, Google has given you an option to fully encrypt your phone using a four number pin or a passphrase. I would highly suggest using a passphrase comprised of both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and symbols that is easily to remember for yourself but looks random. A sample password: Lw0(1b*e(v

Path to encrypt your phone on stock vanilla Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich:
Settings > Security > Encrypt Phone. This process takes about an hour, you have to be plugged in and have your PIN or passphrase already done to even start. You can find this setting wherever you change your screen lock. On stock vanilla Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich you can find this at Settings > Security > Screen Lock.

If your carrier or manufacturer, for whatever reason, as disabled this option with a overlay (like MOTOBLUR for Motorola, TouchWiz for Samsung, or Sprint ID on some Sprint Android phones) you install a new rom that offers this option. You can easily find out ROMs available and how to install it to your phone by using Google.

First wave of downloads after root:

After you have rooted your phone look for the app Superuser. It looks like a gray skull and bones, but with a Android head. If you see this you have root access and proceed with downloading the following apps, if you don’t have this then you are going to have to try getting root again with the tutorial you had found.

(We will be using long URLs in this guide to be transparent with were the links are pointed and showing that no tracking code is in the links)

Download:

Rom Manager by Clockwork Mod - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5rb3VzaGlrZHV0dGEucm9tbWFuYWdlciJd

(optional) Rom Manager by Clockwork Mod premium license ($5.99) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.rommanager.license&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLmtvdXNoaWtkdXR0YS5yb21tYW5hZ2VyLmxpY2Vuc2UiXQ..

Titanium Backup: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5rZXJhbWlkYXMuVGl0YW5pdW1CYWNrdXAiXQ..

(optional) Titanium Backup Pro Key:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5rZXJhbWlkYXMuVGl0YW5pdW1CYWNrdXBQcm8iXQ..

Use Rom Manager by Clockwork Mod to make a back up of your stock rom for if you ever want to go back to that rom. This is important if you ever want to unroot your phone. After doing this use Titanium Backup to schedule backups on your phone. In the settings you can up the encryption levels, as well as storing those encrypted files on DropBox for if you ever lost your phone.

Second wave of downloads after root:

In the next wave of downloads we are going to secure your data connection at a base level using Tor and Google Open DNS. Just like the web version of Tor, you will see a slower response time during any data usage because Tor is working.

Download:

Orbot: Tor on Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy50b3Jwcm9qZWN0LmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..

Orweb: Proxy+Privacy Browser - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.torproject.android&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy50b3Jwcm9qZWN0LmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..

Set DNS: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.mytechie.setDNS&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInVrLmNvLm15dGVjaGllLnNldEROUyJd


First open Orbot: Tor on Android and follow directions to grant it Superuser access for then you have system wide coverage. Next open Set DNS and make sure that you are using Google Open DNS or any other DNS you feel comfortable using. After you’re done with that, open a link on twitter or anther web based app and you will see a system prompt asking you which browser you would like to use. For optimum security you can set the Orweb: Proxy+Privacy Browser as your default browser at this point.

Other fun security minded applications:

TextSecure - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.securesms&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsIm9yZy50aG91Z2h0Y3JpbWUuc2VjdXJlc21zIl0.

NoteCiper - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianproject.notepadbot&feature=also_installed#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwNCwiaW5mby5ndWFyZGlhbnByb2plY3Qubm90ZXBhZGJvdCJd

Gibberbot - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianproject.otr.app.im#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwiaW5mby5ndWFyZGlhbnByb2plY3Qub3RyLmFwcC5pbSJd