How to prevent your phone from being hacked
Article by: charles
Last Modified: 2024-12-21 06:25:00
Your phone may have been hacked! Your information may be put up for public viewing without your permission. Learn how to prevent phone hacking.
What phone hackers hope to achieve from hacking your phone
What phone hackers hope to achieve from hacking your phone
- Financial gain : Money transfer by phone is becomming popular. This means that money can be taken from your account and transferred into another by sms. A Phone hacking guru can get spy and get information required to initiate transactions from your phone.
- Spy on you: A hacker can also gain access and take over for cell phone spying and remote mobile phone hacking. Literally, once secured, the hacker can have the phone call him, and then be able to listen to all conversations going on around the owner of the phone.
- Access your private information: And as we have been reading, phone hackers want to keep ahead of others in gossip! - https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/08/murdoch-papers-phone-hacking
Common ways phone hackers use to hack phones
The commonly used phone hacking methods are use of spyware and account takeovers.
Phone hackers could secretly install on a victim's computer spyware that gives them access to not only the contents of the hard drive, but also the victim's private information such as passwords. Malware is fairly simple to install and can be sent to the victim without her or his knowledge via an e-mail, or user is tricked into downloading them. These spyware programs are generally designed to go around internet security applications.
Usually, an account takeover can be an especially troublesome problem. A phone hacking crook can send impersonating mails to obtain more information from your close friends and family or even trick your contacts to send you money.
What Can You Do to Prevent Phone Hacking?
Eliminating phone hacking is impossible especially because there are companies out there who offer hacking as a service, but you can reduce chances of ever being phone hacked by observing a few rules:
1. Prevent phone hacking through Passwords
Here are some password tips to reduce chances of being phone hacked:
- Turn on password protection for your voice mail.
- Never use the same password for more than one account.
- Change your phone's default passwords.
- Avoid passwords that are easy to guess e.g: your birth year (Can easily be found on your Facebook page).
- Change your system passwords on a regular basis.
2. Switch off your phone
This is not the most popular option, but if you don't need to be reachable at all the times, consider this option.
3. Keep your phone updated
New phone hack prevention mechanism are released now and then as phone companies try to keep up with phone hack prevention. Its a good idea to keep your phone updated.
4. Phone security
Safeguard the physical location of your phone and related computer equipment. Consider anti-theft software like this one https://preyproject.com/. With this software you can do the following:
1.Remotely lock your phone
2.Remotely format/wipe your phone
3.You will get the location and information of the new sim inserted in the phone.
5. Turn off Bluetooth
Some phone hacking is accomplished via bluetooth .Turn off bluetooth service when not using it.
6. Turn off voice mail service running on your provider
Some providers allow access to your voice mail without requiring a password provided that the calling number (Caller ID) is actually yours. This is usually to make their service easier to use for the intended persons. A hacker can spoof your number and call the voice mail number on your provider and operate your voice mail as though it was his own without the need to even know your password! Call your provider and either ask them to require authentication regardless of the caller ID.
Spoofing your number is easy. There are a dozen websites that offer the service at a small fee.
7. Install an antivirus on your phone
Smart phone are now sophisticated just like our laptops. They can be installed with numerous programs because their capabilities. This gives viruses and malware to thrive . To protect your phone from risk of hacking, install an anti-virus. Find a list of '15 best antivirus for your Androip Phones' (from www.androidauthority.com).
8. Use secure wifi links
Using wifi links which are not secure allows hackers to have a link to your phone. They can then start employing their tools of trade against your phone.
9. Avoid installing apps that you don't need or source cannot be trusted
Some apps available on the internet cannot be trusted. They may contain malware or suspicious code that may be used to remote control your phone or even install third party software which you may not have control over.
10. Avoid clicking on short url whatsapp links in messages
Messages that purpote come from your contacts enticing to click on a shortened URL with promises of something nice like a software or an offer is a big red flag. Some of these message will install hidden apps that allow remote access by hackers. Avoid clicking on these links especially if there is a mismatch between the nature of the message and the character of the sender.
Avoid opening unsolicited messages messages from your contacts (This may be hard). It is how Jeff Bezos phone was hacked.
11. Encrypt Your phone
By encrypting your phone, hackers will not be able to access your messages, calls and other important information. Most Android devices are now encrypted automatically althought it depends on the type of phone. For iPhones, you can access the encryption setting at 'Touch ID $ Passcode' option.
Conclusion
As they say, all systems can be broken into, given time. The best that we do is to make it difficult for potential hackers to get to your protected zone.
