There’s more than one way to hack your phone and some don’t require much in the way of technology. Here’s a few and what to look for on your phone as well. One thing to look for is a hot phone. More on that below.
Sim Swap Attack
This is when a hacker transfers your phone’s phone number to his own SIM1 card and uses the hacked card to take over your account.
Spyware
Yes, your phone can suffer from spyware just as your computer can. This nasty thing collects your data which can then be used by the collector. Worse, the collector does not need advanced knowledge to use your data. This can be installed by having direct access to your devise so be careful who you let use your phone.
And you may get malicious programs from fake public Wi-Fi networks that redirect your phone to phishing websites and there they will steal any data you give them.
Phishing
Can be text, Facebook or email messages that contain malicious links that will install nasty programs on your phone. So, care in what links you follow is the defense here.
And, phishing can take to to downloads that install nastiness on your phone. Here too, the best defense is to be careful to only visit and download only from trusted sites.
How To Determine If Your Phone’s Been Hacked
- Your phone is hotter than usual because the hacking programs are using the phone and phone uses requires the battery to work harder making it, and your phone hot. ATTENTION: Should your phone suddenly get very hot, have it seen by a competent technical shop as soon as you can. In the meantime keep it away from anything than it can catch on fire
- Your phone runs slow
- Your battery doesn’t last as long as it used to
- Your data usage goes up and you’re not doing anything different that would account for it
- You find have calls that you didn’t make
- You find apps that you never installed
- The phone does not work as well, behaves oddly, turns itself on and off, and applications crash or fail to load
- You get pop-ups, maybe lots of pop-ups
- Your data usage goes up dramatically without any changes in use on your part.
What Can You Do To Recover?
- Change your passwords – fast
- Remove suspicious software, add-one, applications immediately. How to determine what’s suspicious? What is the last app you added? The phone did not act oddly before, did it? Remove that.
- Turn off your public hotspot when in public 0 it makes hacking your phone easier
- Here’s one you may have already thought of – install security software.
- Restore the phone to its original factory settings and presets. Yeah, I know you may lose a bunch of games and stuff. Do it anyway. The threat this thing poses far outweighs any short inconvenience.
Prevention Is The Best Cure
- If you must transmit a public hotspot, verify that the settings are as secure as you can make them
- Avoid Wi-Fi and charging locations that you don’t absolutely trust. Never without a VPN (Virtual Private Network) In fact, use a VPN whenever one is available. Don’t hesitate to install one, if need be
- Turn off Bluetooth when not using it so hackers can’t ride it into your phone.
- Lock the phone with a password and tell no one – no one – the password
- Don’t ever leave the phone unobserved
- Install anti-malware and keep it up to date
- Avoid download sites you don’t know to be trustworthy
- SIM Card. Subscriber Identity Module is an integrated circuit that stores the information identifying your phone, specifically and uniquely, among the millions of phones on the planet.
