“This will never happen to me!” This is what many mobile phone users say when discussing the issue of hacking and cybersecurity. Some believe that they are not an interesting target for hackers. Others are sure they have provided for everything and well protected their gadgets. But both of them are wrong.
The reasons why criminals want to hack into your phone can be very different. For example, they can get your data through applications installed on your smartphone and then use this information to access your accounts, bank cards, etc. Or even to get corporate data if you will connect personal devices to enterprise assets. Statistics show that more than 80 percent of hacks occur through applications.
At the same time, phone owners often forget about cybersecurity and do not take action to protect their gadgets. Either the actions taken are not enough to withstand a hacker attack.
We will talk about the main signs that your smartphone is under threat or has already been hacked by intruders.
Why is my Phone Acting Up?
You should understand one simple thing. Hackers are constantly improving their skills to break into various cyber systems. This is what they do professionally. No wonder they achieve their goal. They can always find loopholes. Ordinary users are unlikely to have enough experience to fully resist hackers.
Moreover, the attackers act so carefully that you can guess about the hack only by secondary signs. Briefly, these signs can be described as “something strange”, “not the same as usual”, “my Android or iPhone is acting weird”, “my phone is acting up”, etc. This means that the phone begins to respond to your usual commands in a non-standard way or act on its own.
You might think that this is just a software glitch or some other technical problem. But if the problem recurs over and over again, that’s a wake-up call. Remember, unusual behavior and strange activities on your phone are a sign that your gadget may be hacked.
Random Reboots
If your smartphone is functioning normally, you do not need to restart it. However, hackers can force your gadget to reboot to run some kind of malware. They can do this if they already have administrator rights. This means that at the moment they already fully control your smartphone from a distance.
On the other hand, if you can’t restart your phone, that’s also a bad sign. The attackers may have launched a program that monitors your phone continuously and prevents it from restarting.
Slow Performance
The main factors that reduce smartphone performance include, for example, low memory and outdated software. But eliminating such shortcomings is not difficult. If you freed up storage space, updated the software, and the gadget is still buggy, the reason may be that spyware is running. Spyware can copy your data to external storage, although this process requires significant resources and significantly slows down the gadget.
Finding the source of problems is not easy, as spyware is well disguised. Still, you can check the list of active applications. Are they all familiar to you? Do you use them in such a large volume?
Inexplicable Actions
You put your phone away for a while, but then you notice that it continues to perform some tasks. Strange windows pop up, and the screen starts to glow, although no new messages or calls have been received. Or the camera flash started working, although you did not intend to photograph anything. Is this strange? Definitely! None of the above should happen if your phone is fine.
If the phone tries to access suspicious web resources or change your username and password on social networks, the situation is very bad. This means that malware is not only watching you but is also trying to act on your behalf.
Unusually High Data Usage
Any modern phone collects statistics that relate to its activity. Both Android and iPhone can tell you in detail how much mobile data has been used recently. We advise you to study these indicators at least once a month, and if you notice strange smartphone behavior, you should conduct analytics more often. Another sign of over-consumption of data is higher phone bills than usual.
In today’s world, information is a great value that pays well. Therefore, do not be surprised that hackers are after your photos, videos, correspondence, etc.
Unfamiliar Apps in Your App List
When you buy a new phone, it usually comes with some apps already installed. The manufacturer or service provider does this, and you should not be afraid of it. Most of these applications will be essential for your phone to function properly and perform daily tasks.
Another part is popular applications such as Spotify or Netflix. Of course, you can quickly remove the ones you don’t need.
But with further use of the gadget, check the list of installed applications from time to time. There may be a spy among them. We already talked about this problem above, but we want to repeat it since applications are one of the main causes of cybersecurity breaches.
Some of your contacts are receiving calls or text messages from you, even though you didn’t do it
Another big issue for mobile phone security is phishing attacks. Hackers can use many different methods to get to your data. For example, to steal credentials, attackers can send you SMS or emails with infected links. By clicking on such a link, you let hackers into your phone. You literally open doors for them.
By the way, such a link may come on behalf of your friends and acquaintances, whose protection system has already been hacked earlier. You may not be aware of the danger and open a letter from your friend, and this will be a trap. And then your phone and your contacts will also be used for further malicious mailing.
Battery Draining Fast
You may have a reasonable question. How does jailbreaking relate to battery life? You are right, hackers cannot directly break the battery. But if malware is installed on the gadget and is actively running, it actively consumes energy, and the phone runs out faster than usual. Also, the battery may become very hot.
Will Factory Reset Remove Hackers?
Now that you know the signs of a phone being hacked, you need to figure out how to deal with it. There are several options for solving the problem:
- Try to find malware and remove it. Use special applications for this.
- Change your login passwords on your phone and installed apps.
- Reset the settings to the factory state if the previous measures did not work.
So, will factory reset remove hackers? Yes, it is effective, but an extreme measure. This is a rather unpleasant procedure, since then you will have to recover a lot of data and passwords to return the phone to its previous working mode.
Conclusion
Please note that the symptoms listed above may not actually be caused by a hack, but by normal technical issues. For example, the phone is already outdated and does not cope with the tasks. Therefore, we advise you not to jump to conclusions.
Better find a good repair shop, such as Repairs Bay, and ask professional repair engineers to diagnose your gadget. If you can’t name the problem clearly, just say “Why is my phone acting up?”. Experts will ask you some leading questions to quickly identify problems. If your phone has been hacked, they will find the malware, remove it, and restore the protection of your gadget.