How to determine that someone hacked your smartphone: a professional answers

Our smartphones have long been a digital imprint of our personalities. They store all our photos and private correspondence and have access to our social networks and bank accounts. Of course, with such a set, they are a tasty morsel for fraudsters. Experts say that we may not even notice that someone else has infiltrated our smartphones.

"White hacker" Laura Kankaala, who studies the methods of fraudsters to hack digital gadgets in order to better resist them, told us what signs may help notice that something is wrong. Her advice was published by Mail Online.

The expert, who heads the threat analysis department at the Finnish cybersecurity company F-Secure, warned that the overheating of the device or an unexpected green light on the screen may mean that someone is watching you. Other signs include some annoying emails and phone calls.

A dot appears on the screen

If you see a green dot on your Android screen or an orange dot on your iPhone in the upper right corner, it could be a sign of a hack or that a suspicious app has been installed on your phone. These dots are indicators that the camera or microphone is on. If the gadget does this without your knowledge, it may indicate that you are being hacked, your messages are being read, or your location is being tracked. Skilled hackers can install such software on phones without physically holding the device.

To get rid of the problem, look through the list of apps installed on your device and uninstall unknown apps and those you haven't used in a while. Resetting your phone or running an antivirus scan may also help.

If you have an iPhone, you can check which of your apps is using your camera or microphone by going to the Control Center and looking at the dots icon at the top. It will indicate which apps have access to the microphone, camera, or geolocation. You can also go to Settings and turn on App Privacy Report to see a running log of which apps have used your sensitive permissions and when.

Your phone is getting hot

According to Kankaal, unexpected heating or quick draining of your battery can mean that you have malware installed on it. If a program is using your device's resources without you knowing it, it can affect its performance and battery life. In this case, check your phone for strange apps that you don't remember installing. Be sure to check if there are any apps on your device that are not from the official store. Sometimes they try to disguise themselves and have names similar to those of safe programs. The problem with this kind of software is that it can be difficult to completely remove it from your device.

You receive emails from social media apps

If you start receiving emails from social media or other applications asking if you want to change your password to the email address to which your mobile phone account is linked, this may be a sign that your personal data has been stolen. This can be done through a technique known as fishing. You receive an email that looks very much like something official: a message from a bank, a notification from some government service, etc. But it contains a link that leads to malware. In this case, it is important to act quickly. The attacker didn't necessarily hack your phone. Perhaps all they have stolen is access to your online services, such as email, iCloud accounts, or even social media. Which is already a lot. In this case, you risk losing access. Therefore, do not agree to such offers and change your password, but go through the entire procedure from the very beginning. Don't forget to check the addresses in suspicious emails. A fishing link can be very similar to the correct and official one and differ from it by only one letter.

Your bank starts calling you

If your bank starts calling you frequently and asking you about your card details and various transactions, be careful: it could be a hacking attempt. Never disclose any passwords or account access codes over the phone. A skilled operator always has other tools to confirm your identity. For example, they may ask a secret question or ask for your date of birth.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA told you how to create a strong password that cannot be cracked.

Subscribe to OBOZ.UA on Telegram and Viber to keep up with the latest events.