How to know if the phone is hacked or not? Methods of checking phone hacking. How do we know that our phone is hacked? Is there a way to discover and prevent your smartphone from being hacked? In this article, we teach how to find out if our Android smartphone or iOS iPhone has been hacked, and then we will discuss the methods to fix phone hacking.

These devices are the main centre of our online life, from email to mobile banking systems or smartphone banking operations. Unsurprisingly, smartphones compete with computers as common targets for online hackers. And despite the efforts of Google and Apple, mobile malware continues to make its way into official app stores — and these malicious apps are getting better and brighter every day. According to McAfee’s 2020 Mobile Threat Report, more than half of mobile malware “without hiding the homepage” hijacks the device to serve unwanted ads, send fake reviews, steal marketable information or keep it “hidden” on the victim’s machine. They catch themselves

And while iPhones can be hacked, more malware targets Android devices. In its 2020 Malware Report, Mellorbytes reported an increase in invasive malware and pre-installed malware on Android devices that have been used to steal information – or get victims’ attention. Now the question is, how do we know that the phone has been hacked and who hacked it?
How to know if our phone is hacked? Malware detection system

Malware can also include spyware that monitors the device’s content, programs that use the device’s Internet bandwidth in botnets to send spam, or phishing pages that steals the user’s login by entering a legitimate program or electronic payment systems.

This program is often downloaded from unofficial sources, including phishing links sent via email or message and malicious websites. (While security experts recommend constantly downloading apps from official app stores – such as the Apple App Store or Google Play) – some countries cannot access certain apps from these sources (For example, secure messaging apps that allow you to communicate secretly.)

Then there are commercial spy apps that require physical access to be downloaded to the phone – often by a celebrity such as a partner or a parent – ​​and can monitor everything that happens on the device.

In the following, we introduce twelve ways to determine whether your phone has been hacked.
How to detect phone hacking? Has our phone been hacked?

How do we know that our phone has been hacked?

In the following, we will generally introduce and examine the signs of smartphone hacking.

Sudden battery drain

How do we know that the phone is hacked?

How do we know that the phone is hacked? To detect phone hacking While the phone’s battery life will inevitably decrease over time, a smartphone hacked by malware may suddenly experience a severe battery drain, even if you do not have any programs. You don’t have it open or don’t even do anything special with your phone. Because malware – or spyware – may use the phone’s resources to scan the device and transmit information to a hacking server.

That being said, simple day-to-day use can shorten a phone’s life just as much. Be sure to read this article to increase your phone’s battery life.
Slow down the phone

How do we know that the phone is hacked?

To find out if our phone is hacked or not, how can we know that our phone is hacked if the phone’s battery life decreases quickly? Does your phone freeze frequently, or do specific programs crash and do you suspect that your phone has been hacked? This may be due to malware that overloads the phone’s resources or interferes with other applications.

You may also experience the app running continuously despite trying to close apps or the phone itself crashing or restarting frequently.

High data consumption

Phone data usage

Another sign of a hacked smartphone and how to find out if it is hacked is the increase in the phone’s internet data usage, which can be caused by malware or spyware programs that run in the background and leak information to their server. turn
Calls or texts that you have never applied

If your phone calls or text messages to numbers you don’t recognize, be careful – this could indicate that your phone has been hacked. If the phone is hacked in this way, there is a high possibility that other people are using your account and charging your SIM card.
Sudden ads, the main sign of phone hacking

To find out if our phone is hacked, although all ads do not mean that your phone is hacked, advertisements that are constantly opened on the phone show immoral images or texts about your winnings. It could indicate that your phone is infected with adware, malware that forces devices to visit specific pages that earn money through clicks. If you ask us if the phone has been hacked, the answer is yes. Will be.

Even if an ad window does not indicate that your phone has been hacked, clicking on it will hack your phone and possibly download more malware. So, if you have a question in your mind, how to know if the phone is hacked and you suddenly see a lot of ads on your phone, then definitely think about cleaning the phone.
Unusual behaviour on the user account of the phone. How to understand that our phone has been hacked

If a hacker has access to your phone and can hack it, they also have access to your accounts – from social media to email to various lifestyle or productivity apps. Sometimes it changes. For example, a program closes or opens by itself, resetting the password, sending emails, marking unread emails that you don’t remember to read, or registering for new accounts whose confirmation emails are in Your inbox is happening. Be sure your phone is hacked.

If so, you could risk identity hacking, where criminals open new accounts or lines of credit in your name using information taken from your compromised accounts. Installing and activating the best antivirus on your device is better so that your funds are taken care of.
What to do if the phone is hacked?

Phone hack

If your phone has been hacked, after finding out where the phone was hacked from, the best way is to use antivirus and anti-hacking applications.

For Android, you recommend Avast, which scans for malware and includes a call blocker, firewall, VPN, and a feature to ask for a PIN every time certain apps are used — preventing malware from opening sensitive apps like banking. Your online offers.

iPhones may be less vulnerable to hacking, but they are not entirely immune. Look for iOS anti-security apps acting maliciously on your phone and try to remove them.
Who hacked our phone?

Can we find out who hacked the phone and where the phone was hacked from? Currently, there is no specific method to find the traces of the hacker on your phone. However, there are other technical means and motivations for hackers, criminals, and even people we know, such as employers, to attack our phones and invade our privacy. And unless you’re a high-profile target—journalist, politician, political dissident, business executive, criminal—who attracts particular interest, chances are someone close to you is from a government agency that spies.

Phone hacking methods and phone hacking detection

Spy applications

To find out if our phone is hacked, phone monitoring apps covertly track a person’s location and reject their communications. Many of them are advertised to suspicious partners or untrustworthy employers, but they are still mainly marketed as legitimate tools for parents who need increased security for their children’s information. Such programs can be used to remotely view text messages, emails, internet history and photos. You only need to enter phone calls and GPS positions. Some may even hijack the phone’s microphone and record personal conversations. These apps have everything a hacker wants to do with your phone.

When we studied cell phone spy apps in 2013, we found that they could do everything they promised. Worse, they were easy for anyone to install, and the person being spied on would be none the wiser that their every move was tracked there.

Chester Wisniewski says, “There aren’t many indicators of hidden spyware—you might see more internet on your bill, or your battery life might be shorter than usual because it’s reporting to a third party. give”

Spy apps are available on Google Play and unofficial stores for iOS and Android apps, and it’s straightforward to download one to get access to your phone (and motivation).
How to protect your phone from hacking

Since installing spyware requires physical access to your device, putting a passcode on your phone dramatically reduces the likelihood of someone gaining access to your phone. And since spyware is often installed by someone close to you (a colleague or someone else), choose a code that someone else can’t guess.
Browse your list of apps for apps you need to recognize.
Do not jailbreak your iPhone. “If a device is jailbroken, all the apps will be shown,” Wisniewski says. “If it’s spyware, the spyware can hide deep inside the device, and if the security software can find it, It depends on the sophistication of the spyware [as the security software scans for known malware].”

Making sure your phone isn’t jailbroken for iPhones will also prevent spyware from being downloaded onto your phone since such software — which reduces system-level functions — won’t make it to the App Store.
Download a mobile security app. We introduce McAfee or Bitdefender for Android, and for iOS, we will recommend the Lookout application.

Phishing messages

Whether it’s a text purporting to be from a coronavirus contact tracker or a friend urging you to check out this photo of yourself from last night, text messages containing deceptive links aim to steal sensitive information (aka phishing). or known as “smashing”) want to hack your phone, and that’s true if you want to know if your phone has been hacked with phishing messages.

And given that people typically check their email programs throughout the day, phishing emails are just as profitable for attackers.

Periods like tax season increase phishing messages by drawing attention to people’s tax returns, while the coronavirus-related government stimulus payment period has made phishing emails more tax-advantaged.

Android phones may be text-baited with links to download malicious apps (the same scam isn’t typical for iPhones, which usually can only be enabled with a jailbreak and thus can’t download apps from anywhere but the App Store ). If you try downloading an unofficial app and it asks you to install it, Android will warn you – don’t ignore this warning.

Such malware may expose the user’s phone data or contain a phishing overlay designed to steal login information from targeted applications – for example, the user’s bank or email application.
How to prevent phone hacking from receiving phishing messages

Keep in mind how you usually verify your identity with different accounts. For example, your bank will never ask you to enter your full password or PIN.
Check out the IRS Phishing section to learn how the IRS communicates with the public and verify the communications you receive
Avoid clicking on links from numbers you don’t know or in vague and strange messages from friends, especially if you can’t see the full URL.
If you click on the link and try downloading an unofficial app, your Android phone should notify you before installing it. If you ignore the warning or the app otherwise bypasses Android security, uninstall the app or run a mobile security scan to prevent your phone from being hacked.

Unauthorized access to iCloud or Google Account

Hacked iCloud and Google accounts provide access to a staggering amount of data backed up on your smartphone – photos, phonebook, current location, messages, call logs, and in the case of iCloud Keychain, passwords stored on Email accounts, browsers and other applications. And there are spyware vendors who specifically market their products against these vulnerabilities.

Online criminals may not find much value in photos of ordinary people — unlike nude pictures of celebrities, which are quickly leaked — but they know the owners of the images do, Wisniewski says, which can lead to hostages—taking accounts and their contents digitally.

Moreover, a broken Google account means a broken Gmail, the primary email for many users.

Access to a single original email can lead to a domino effect of hacking across all the accounts the email is linked to – from your Facebook account to your mobile carrier account, setting the stage for the depth of identity theft. That will put your credit at risk.

Is our phone hacked with a Google account, and how to prevent it?

Create a strong password for these critical accounts (and, as always, your email).
Enable login notifications to be notified of logins from new computers or locations.
Enable two-factor authentication so that even if someone finds your password, they can’t access your account without access to your phone.
To avoid personal password resets, lie when setting password security questions. You’d be surprised how many security questions rely on information that’s readily available on the internet or widely known by your family and friends.

Hacking the phone with Bluetooth, how to know that our phone has been hacked through Bluetooth

Any wireless connection can be vulnerable to phone hacking — and earlier this year, security researchers found a vulnerability in Android 9 and older devices that allowed hackers to connect via Bluetooth secretly. , then steal the data on the device. (On Android 10 devices, this attack breaks Bluetooth and makes it impossible to secure.)

Although this vulnerability is soon patched in security updates, attackers can hack your Bluetooth connection through other vulnerabilities .they tricking you into pairing with your device by giving it a different name (like “AirPods” or another global name) and once connected. Your personal information will be at risk.
Phone camera hack

As video calling becomes increasingly common for work and family communication, it highlights the importance of securing computer webcams from hackers — but that front-facing phone camera can also be at risk. For example, a fixed bug in Android’s built-in camera app allows attackers to record video from the front camera, steal photos, and geo-locate images, while malicious apps can access it. Your camera app can also pinch and hack your pictures or documents.

image source: MEDIUM