Worried woman looking at smartphone screen. Another sign that your phone has been hacked is a fast draining battery.
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These days, how to tell if your phone has been hacked can be an important piece of information. Many people rely heavily on their phone; three-quarters of phone users worldwide use them to chat or send messages, six out of ten for banking and almost half for roaming, according to Statista. Indeed, according to Pew Research, 16% of US adults are “smartphone-only” internet users who depend on their phone since they don’t have home broadband service. All of this means that if something goes wrong and your phone gets hacked, your life can be put on hold – and your bank account wiped out. Here’s a look at how to know if your phone has been hacked, how to avoid it and what to do if the worst happens.
Can Someone Hack My Phone?
Cyber criminals have various methods of controlling, or stealing information from a victim’s phone. All types of phones, whether iPhone or Android, are vulnerable – although Apple phones are generally considered safe, due to strict security controls.
There are several different methods of hacking the phone, and how to tell if you have access to important information. One of the most common is tricking the user into clicking on a malicious link, or importing software into a fake app store or other site through what is known as social engineering, usually through phishing emails. Fake public wifi networks can fool unsuspecting people. Another method involves SIM switching, where the attacker persuades the victim’s mobile provider to transfer their SIM card to a device they control; infected USB cables or charger cables can also allow an attacker access. And once an attacker finds a way in, user data can be exposed, especially where passwords are reused.
How To Check If Your Phone Has Been Hacked
Perhaps the most high-profile phone hack came in 2019, when the Twitter account of the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, began posting a series of strange posts. It became clear that his Twitter account had been hacked.
In this case, the attackers seem to have used a SIM replacement, which was only possible with “security oversight” by his carrier. Usually, a phone user becomes suspicious after seeing one or more of the signs below.
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There can be a number of signs that a phone has been stolen – but they don’t appear in all cases and, if they do, they can be easy to miss. Basically, it’s a question of looking for unusual behavior on your phone.
1. Check the Phone Battery
Another common sign that your phone has been hacked is the battery draining quickly. This can also cause the phone to overheat. If you suddenly notice a noticeable difference, there may be a problem.
2. Review Your Phone Bill
Another sign of phone hacking is higher-than-normal bills, as your phone performs unauthorized activities. An excess in the amount of bandwidth you are using may be a sign that the phone is sending unwanted communications.
3. Check the Apps on Your Phone
If your phone is stolen, new apps may appear unexpectedly, existing apps may take longer to load and apps may open or close by themselves. Be aware of suspicious behavior.
4. See Corrupt Notifications and Settings
Sometimes unexpected notifications, unsolicited two-factor authentication codes or hackers may start appearing, and settings such as camera or microphone permissions may change.
5. Check Your Accounts
The biggest red flag is finding yourself locked out of your Apple ID or Google account, or out of other online accounts.
6. Run Antivirus Software
Installing and running a decent security software package should definitely reveal if the phone is indeed hacked. Find and remove any malware or spyware that may have infected the phone using popular packages available from the likes of:
Remove anything suspicious, restart the phone, and run the software again to make sure the phone is now really clean.
What Should You Do If Your Phone Is Hacked?
If you discover that your phone has been hacked, there are a few important steps that need to be taken immediately to try and prevent hackers from causing any necessary damage.
1. Check with Your Financial Institutions
The first port of call may be your bank, credit card and other financial institutions to make sure your accounts are not compromised.
2. Change your password
Your next move, and one of the most important, is to immediately change all passwords to new, strong ones. This should be done for all applications and websites connected to the infected phone.
3. Remove suspicious Apps
Do a scan of all the apps on your phone, and remove any that are suspicious or unknown. Restart the phone and check again to make sure the removal was successful.
4. If All Else Fails, Reset the Phone
If there really are a lot of hackers or malicious apps and all else fails, you can restore your phone to its factory settings – although this means losing everything stored on the device, it’s a very nuclear option.
5. Tell Your Friends
It’s a good idea to let your friends and other contacts know that your phone has been stolen, and warn them to ignore and delete any messages that appear on your phone.
Will AI Make Phone Hacking Easier?
The rise of AI scams is already having a major impact on consumers. AI can make it easier for hackers to reproduce scams on a large scale. It can also be difficult to tell what’s real because AI can clean up or improve submissions – mimicking voices, creating scripts and avoiding typing.
For example, AI can be used to combine voices, so a scammer can call you pretending to be a loved one or someone important. Another example is that you can become part of a text scam where the scammer tries to convince you to give them your personal information via text.
As AI continues to improve, it may become more difficult to spot scams. Finally, it’s important to stay alert and watch out for anything you find you don’t expect. At the moment, common security measures are the best defenses – multi-factor authentication, passwords and updated software.
How to Protect Your Phone from Future Hackers
Whether you’ve been hacked or not, there are a few basic online safety steps you can take to keep your phone safe from hackers in the future. The first, and most straightforward, is to make sure you have a good security package, such as one of the ones listed above, installed, and keep it updated.
It is, of course, important to keep up to date with all software updates, as these often fix known vulnerabilities. Make sure your passwords are strong. Be aware of public charging stations and public wifi, and as an extra precaution, you may wish to turn off your wifi and Bluetooth if it’s not working. For added protection, you can encrypt your phone, lock your SIM card and use a virtual private network, which should make public wifi even safer to use. And be very careful with third-party app stores: playing it safe with Google Play and the Apple App Store is always the best bet.
Being a victim of phone hacking can have devastating effects, affecting everything from friendships to your bank account. How to know if your phone has been hacked is important information, as luckily you can recover from a hack, and there are ways to make it much less likely to happen again.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Learn more about knowing if your accounts or devices have been hacked and what to do about it on our site a broken harp.
