IF your phone has rubbish battery life and gets hotter than the inside of a McDonald’s Apple Pie, you might have been hijacked.
Don’t just put it down to your phone’s old age – there’s a chance you’re in real danger.
There are loads of subtle signs that your iPhone or Android has been hijacked by hackers.
The good news is that you use your phone every day. That means you’re in the best place to notice when something is wrong.
Sure, it might be nothing. But I’m always on the look-out for the danger signs below – and you should be too.
If you notice any of them, it’s time to go full Sherlock and start investigating.
CLUE #1 – THE WAY YOUR PHONE FEELS
Sometimes, you can actually “feel” that your phone has been hacked.
That’s because often, a hacked phone will be doing stuff in the background.
It might be using your device to give fake views to ads (to make money for crooks), or hoovering up your personal info to beam it over the internet, or even recording everything you do. Creepy.
All of this uses power – just like if you yourself were using your phone.
So you might notice that your phone is getting warmer than usual for no reason. Maybe it’s running slower, or the battery life is dropping without explanation.
All of these issues can have totally normal causes, but they should still set alarm bells ringing.
WHAT TO DO
For some easy sleuthing, go into your phone’s battery settings. This works on both iPhone and Android.
Look at the apps using up battery. On iPhone, you can see what’s draining your charge in the background.
If an app is working hard in the background and you can’t work out why, it’s a sign that something is very wrong.
You can see how much battery life specific apps are draining overall – as well as in the background[/caption]
If you don’t care about the app, just delete it. At worst, you’ll save some battery life – and at best, you’ll avoid dangerous spying.
CLUE #2 – MYSTERIOUS CHANGES
Alright, so you’ve felt your phone. Now look at it. Properly.
Have you noticed any odd changes? For example, have any of your settings mysteriously been tweaked?
Worse still, are you seeing any apps installed that you don’t remember downloading?
Both of those are major red flags that your gadget has been compromised.
It’s also possible that someone close to you is the person doing the spying.
WHAT TO DO
There are two specific settings that you should look for right away if you’ve got an iPhone.
Go into Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Share My Location.
Check the Share My Location tab to see if someone is spying on your movements[/caption]
This will show a list of anyone that you’re sharing your location with.
If someone is on this list, they can watch your every move on a virtual map.
Chances are you added the people on the list yourself – but if you didn’t, revoke their access.
Secondly, go to Settings > [Name] and scroll down until you start seeing a long list of devices.
These are all the gadgets signed into your Apple account.
If someone is signed into your Apple ID, they can not only see your location but almost everything you do.
Tap on each device to see the serial number, then check those against the devices you own.
If you don’t recognise one, remove it from your account and immediately change your Apple password.
SPY IN YOUR MIDST
It’s important to remember that it might not be a hacker spying on you – but someone close to you…
This could be a friend or family member, a colleague, or someone you see regularly.
If you think someone is checking up on your phone, there are some checks you must make right away.
Go into Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Share My Location.
This will show you a list of anyone that has constant access to your live location. It’s possible that a stalker has added themselves to your list. Remove them (but be aware they’ll be able to see their access has been revoked).
Next, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check.
This guides you through a simple process to review, update, and stop your iPhone from sharing info with people or apps.
You’ll be able to see if anyone is accessing your location, viewing your photos, or logging into your Apple ID.
If you’re worried, you can tap Emergency Reset to immediately cut off all access.
And there’s a Quick Exit button at the top-right of the screen that instantly saves your changes and closes the Settings app.
Picture Credit: The Sun / Apple
Otherwise you’re leaving yourself wide open to spying.
CLUE #3 – CHECK YOUR DATA
This clue is a continuation of the one above.
If crooks are siphoning info from your phone – or running schemes in the background – then your data usage can mysteriously rise.
WHAT TO DO
One way to check if you’re going over on data is to look at your phone bill.
But a more useful way is to head into your phone’s data settings.
If you’ve got an iPhone, grab it and go to Settings > Mobile Data.
Then scroll down and look at your Mobile Data section – and tap Show All at the bottom.
You can easily see which apps are draining your mobile data – and if any suspicious downloads seem to be gobbling up way too much[/caption]
You can then view how much data individual apps have been using.
It’s a similar story for Android phones: just go into your phone’s Network settings, and make your way to App Data Usage.
If an app that you use all the time on-the-go like YouTube has high data usage, that’s probably fine.
After all, it’s a video app that you’re using often, so it would naturally gobble up plenty of data.
But if you’re seeing an odd app consume a lot of data, that’s a bad sign – especially if you don’t recognise it.
Consider deleting any suspicious app that’s using a lot of data.
CLUE #4 – MYSTERY MESSAGE
A major sign of a hack won’t be on your phone – but someone else’s.
An easy way to tell if you’ve been hacked if you notice strange messages to friends, family, or coworkers that you didn’t send.
CHECK YOUR MIC AND CAMERA
Think someone is watching through your camera or listening via the microphone?
Thankfully it’s easy enough to check.
Both iPhone and Android will flag when your mic or camera is in use.
On an iPhone, you’ll see a green dot on the status bar for the camera – or an orange dot with the microphone.
And an Android phone will simply show a microphone or camera symbol on the status bar instead.
You can also dive into your privacy settings to see more info about how your camera or microphone are being used.
This includes exactly which apps are using them.
So if you see any suspicious apps accessing your camera or microphone when they shouldn’t be, revoke their access immediately.
Picture Credit: The Sun / Apple
These are often attempts by crooks to use your identity to scam other people.
But a clever crook will cover their tracks, deleting evidence of outgoing messages on your apps.
So if a friend or family member tells you on a chat app, over the phone or in person that they’ve had an odd message from you, act fast.
If they’ve had the text, chances are that other people have too.
Change your passwords on the affected apps immediately – and consider deleting any suspicious apps that you’ve recently downloaded.
WHAT TO DO
One of the best things you can do to get ready for this kind of attack is set up a safe word with your family.
Then if any of you receives a message from a family member asking for money, you can use the safe word to verify their identity.
If you get a text from a loved one asking for money, using a safe word is an easy way to resolve the situation[/caption]
Just don’t pick something too obvious, like the city you live in.
CLUE #5 – LOCKED OUT
Another dead giveaway is if you’re suddenly locked out of a service.
Unless you’ve been banned (and you’d probably have a good idea about that), not being able to get into an app or account is a major sign of a hack.
WHAT TO DO
If you get locked out of your account, make sure to change your password and add a verification code once you get back in[/caption]
First, go into your emails to check for any messages about changed passwords.
Then try to get back into the account by resetting the password.
Once you’re in, add a two-factor authentication immediately. That’s the feature that means you’ll be sent a special code every time you log in.
With that set up, you should be able to block people from logging in.
Many apps will let you see who else is logged into your account. That includes Facebook, Netflix, and even your Apple account.
If you see any dodgy devices that you don’t recognise, boot them out using the security page for that app.
For checking your Apple account specifically, just open your iPhone, go to Settings > [Name], scroll down, and look at the list of devices.
You can tap each one to see its serial number. Compare that to your own gadget. If it doesn’t match, revoke access immediately. That way, the person won’t be able to spy on you any more.
EXTREME LOCKDOWN!
It’s called Lockdown Mode, and Apple says that it’s so powerful most people will probably never need to use it.
“Lockdown Mode is optional and should be used only if you believe you might be targeted by a highly sophisticated cyberattack,” Apple says.
“Such as by a private company developing state-sponsored mercenary spyware.
“Most people are never targeted by attacks of this nature.”
It’ll block most message attachment types, as well as links and previews sent via text.
Some websites won’t load properly, and FaceTime calls will be blocked unless you’ve called that person before.
Location info will be scrubbed from photos you share, and so much more.
To turn it on, just go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode, and then follow the prompts. Your iPhone will need to restart afterwards.
Keep in mind that your iPhone won’t work as well as it normally does with Lockdown Mode – so only activate it if you reckon a country has sponsored a cyberattack against you.
Thankfully for most Sun readers, that’s not very likely. Unless you’re a spy.
Picture Credit: The Sun / Apple
CLUE #6 – POPPING UP
Pop-ups are an age-old sign of devices being compromised.
Even back in the day on early Windows PCs, relentless pop-ups on your web browser were a dead giveaway that you’d downloaded something dodgy. Whoops.
Well it’s much the same story for phones.
Often these pop-ups will take two forms.
One will be just an attempt to spam you with ads to make money for criminals. This can slow your phone right down. But it’s also ruddy annoying.
Another type tries to get you to interact.
That might be with a warning or a tempting deal – anything to get you to tap the pop-up.
WHAT TO DO
You can scroll all the way to the right on your iPhone’s Home Screen to find your App Library, which shows every app that you’ve got installed[/caption]
If you’re on a dodgy website, the pop-up might just be linked to that specific page.
But if you’re seeing the pop-ups everywhere – even on regular websites – then your device may have been compromised.
Delete any downloads that you’ve made recently to see if the problem goes away.
If it doesn’t, you might need to restore your phone from a back-up.
CLUE #7 – STRANGE CHARGES
Seeing alerts about big bills linked to your phone?
There are some easy ways to check if you’re actually being charged.
For instance, both iPhone and Android have subscription pages in their app stores where you can see what you’ve signed up for.
Similarly, Apple users can head to reportaproblem.apple.com to see a list of recent purchases.
Go to Settings > [Name] > Subscriptions to find out what you’re actually paying for on an iPhone[/caption]
So if you’re getting emails and texts about an app bill that doesn’t show up on your account history, someone is trying to trick you.
Ignore those emails – they’re likely scams.
WHAT TO DO
Probably the more serious situation is if you’re seeing actual charges on your account history that you didn’t make.
It could mean that your account has been compromised, your credit card details have been nicked, or your device has been taken over.
You’ll want to change your passwords and contact your bank – don’t delay or you risk losing more money.
