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6 Signs Your Phone Is Hacked – And What To Do Next
Realizing your phone has been hacked can be extremely stressful, but stay calm. Knowing how to tell if your phone is hacked is essential knowledge.
Most people are highly reliant on their phone; three quarters of phone users worldwide use them to chat or send messages, six in ten for banking and nearly half for navigation, according to Statista. Indeed, Pew Research states that 15% of U.S. adults are “smartphone-only” internet users who don’t have a home broadband service.
In reality, if something goes wrong and your phone is hacked, your life can be turned upside down — and your bank account cleaned out.
Here’s a look at how to know if you’ve been hacked, how to avoid it and what to do if the worst happens.
How To Tell If Your Phone Is Hacked
1. Check The Phone’s Battery One common symptom that your phone has been hacked is a fast-draining battery. This can also cause the phone to overheat.
2. Review Your Phone Bill Another sign of a hack is higher-than-usual bills, as your phone carries out unauthorized activities. A jump in bandwidth you’re using could be a sign that the phone is sending unwanted communications.
3. Audit The Apps On Your Phone If your phone is hacked, new apps may appear unexpectedly, existing apps may take a long time to load and apps may open or close on their own. Be on the lookout for suspicious behavior.
4. Recognize Rogue Notifications And Settings Sometimes unexpected notifications, unrequested two-factor authentication codes or pop-ups may start to appear, and settings such as camera or microphone permissions may change.
5. Check Your Accounts The biggest red flag of all is finding yourself unexpectedly locked out of your Apple ID or Google account, or other online accounts.
6. Run Antivirus Software Installing and running a reputable security software package should reveal for sure whether your phone has actually been hacked. Find and remove any malware or spyware that may have infected the phone using popular packages available from Bitdefender, Norton, Kaspersky, AVG, McAfee, and other well-established cybersecurity companies.
If you discover that your phone has been hacked, there are steps to take immediately to try and prevent hackers from causing further damage than necessary.
1. Check With Your Financial Institutions The first port of call may be your bank or credit card company to ensure your accounts haven’t been accessed.
2. Change Your Passwords Next, it’s crucial to change all passwords instantly to new, strong ones. This should be done for all apps and websites linked to the infected phone.
3. Remove Suspicious Apps Do an audit of every app on your phone, removing any that are suspicious or unknown.
4. If All Else Fails, Factory Reset The Phone If there are many malicious apps and other problems, you could restore your phone to its factory settings — although this means losing everything stored on the device, it’s very much the nuclear option.
5. Alert Your Friends It’s a good idea to let friends and contacts know that your phone has been hacked, and warn them to ignore any messages that appear to be coming from your phone.
In conclusion, falling victim to a phone hack can have a devastating impact on everything from friendships to your bank account. Knowing how to tell if your phone is hacked is essential knowledge, as it’s possible to recover from a hack and there are ways to make it much less likely that it happens again.
Source: www.forbes.com
