There are a lot of ways for a hacker to gain control of your device. If you are in doubt about your phone getting hacked, you have come to the right place. This article will guide you quickly through seven ways of finding out whether or not your Android phone has been hacked.
You can watch our YouTube videos in English and Hindi on the same topic.
Also read: 9 common types of Malware explained
Unusual battery drain
You might find the battery-draining scenario a common occurrence as your phone starts getting old. Regardless, you should rethink if your phone’s battery is draining at a faster rate than usual. You can get your phone’s hardware checked to cross off options; if there happens to be no hardware problem, your phone may be hacked.
A malicious app could be scanning your data and sending it back to its host server. This requires a lot of battery usage, hence explaining the battery drain.
Phone too hot?
The sudden rising temperature of a phone is usually a sign of illegal background activities. It is considered normal for a phone to get hot when performing graphics or CPU-intensive tasks, for example, playing games. However, if your phone has been heating up more often of late, it might be time to get it checked.
Bad performance
From the above-mentioned points, one can gather that there might be a significant drop in the performance. Nowadays, phones have a high processing power, optimal refresh rates, a good amount of storage, and a substantial battery backup. So has your phone slowed down in the past few days?
If your phone has started lagging frequently without any major input from your side, there might be a malicious app working behind the scenes. This app could be running in the background, for more information watch our video on YouTube.
Also read: How your Android phone can be hacked in under 2 minutes
Text surprise
In a previous article and video, we mentioned how easily an Android phone could get hacked in under five minutes. If you find random texts or call logs on your phone, not made by you, chances are, you have been hacked.
Unrecognised social media activity
These days, all our login activities on various apps and websites get stored in the form of our user ID, phone number, and email address. If your phone has been hacked, whether or not you are aware of the hack, any strange activity on your social media accounts might alert you. Your email address becomes vulnerable to this attack as well.
High data usage
Have you been noticing a high internet usage when you are barely using your phone? Then this is another sure-fire way of finding out if you have been hacked. A malicious app sending data back to its host server can consume a lot of energy and increase network charges.
Random pop-ups
This hack displays random pop-ups on your display that can be very irritating. Clicking on one can be disastrous, as it can trigger malware or leads you to a website that does the same. You can easily tap on the red cross on the top-left corner of a pop-up to make it go away, but it can be annoying for sure. Be careful not to click on any.
How to safeguard your phone?
Hacking is a subtle art of taking control over a phone. It may happen because of a malicious app, any APK link you may have downloaded through third-party apps, or by clicking on fraudulent email links. Sometimes, you might get messages that might seem like they are from your bank, but are just phishing links to get your sensitive data.
If you feel that you may have been hacked, regardless of how that may have happened, make the following changes:
- Back up your photos, videos, or any other personal files then reset your phone to factory settings.
- Change all your passwords, even ones not related to your phone, for further security. Focus on protecting your private information.
- Contact any security expert who might be able to check if your device is still hacked.
- Install a good antivirus, for example, McAfee or Malwarebytes.
- Begin using a VPN or Tor browser, or both, for an added layer of security.
Also Read: Tor vs VPN: Which one is better?
