Cell phone safety may be a strange topic for a financial blog. Yet with people doing more and more on their devices – and logging into their money accounts wherever they are – the safety of your phone is important. How do you know if your phone has been hacked? And what can you do if you find you’re a victim?
Signs of a potential hack
Apps suddenly appearing or disappearing. If your phone is hacked, you may notice if you upload an app and the icon immediately disappears. The other side of that – if you notice that apps you didn’t upload are running in the background, you may have a hacked phone.
Hot phone. Ever noticed when you’re using some apps – maybe when you’re playing a game – that your phone gets hot? If your phone seems to have heated up permanently, this can be a sign of a hacked device.
Low battery. A phone that’s working more than normal (and giving off excess heat) will naturally use more battery. Be suspect if you are charging more often.
Ads or text messages appear. If you start seeing pop-up ads everywhere or receive text messages that make no sense, your phone could have a malware issue.
Data through the roof. If a hacker has access to your phone, they will need data to communicate with it. Be aware of sudden increases in data usage.
Phone seems sluggish. If you have a hacked phone, these apps and messages running in the background will tax its processing power. One of the first signs can be a slow phone.
What do I do now?
If you suspect that your phone has been hacked, one of the first things I recommend is to turn off all communications with the outside world – this means wi-fi and data. In addition:
Search for – and delete – unknown apps. Go through your list of apps. If you don’t recognize an app, delete it after first deleting all the data in that app.
Run an anti-malware app. I have an app I use on my phone, but there are many out there. Find one that you trust and use it to check both your phone and storage card (if you have an Android device).
Restart your phone. Restart your phone after the malware app is finished and search again for any unknown apps. Some apps may not be completely deleted even though you go through this process. If you find one you can’t delete, search online for solutions.
Reset your phone. A factory reset is the nuclear option – it will wipe everything you have saved and any preferences you have set and restore the phone to what you received when you bought it. Consider this a last resort. If you decide to do this, back up all your data and files.
Change passwords. If you use mobile banking or other apps requiring passwords, change those passwords to prevent hackers from being able to access your accounts. Start with any app dealing with money and work your way through the remainder.
How to prevent hacking
There are some easy steps you can take to prevent this from happening in the future.
Keep your phone updated. I’m someone who doesn’t want my computer or device updating whenever it becomes available – it always seems to take forever and happens at the worst possible time. So I have everything set to let me know when an update is available. Sometimes I’m good at updating quickly; other times it languishes. If you are using a computer or device to handle money, don’t let it languish.
Don’t use public wi-fi for passworded accounts. If you’re at the local coffee shop and want to read the latest on your favorite sports team, public wi-fi is fine. But don’t use it for any account you need a password to log into. Using the phone’s data is much more secure.
Turn off Bluetooth. Hackers have used Bluetooth in the past to access phones. Consider keeping Bluetooth turned off unless you’re using it.
Don’t answer spam or click links. If there’s any doubt about a message or email you receive, take a moment before clicking on it. With email, you can hover over the sender’s address to see what their actual address is. In either case, I don’t open anything where I don’t know who it’s from.
Keep the malware app (and keep it updated). Even after taking these steps, your phone could still be hacked. This is where having a malware app can help. Even if you decide to only do manual scans, make sure you do them periodically. Best bet though – have it run automatically so your device is kept safe.
Rethink immediate access. With so many scams out there, take a moment to consider how important it is to you to have immediate access to your money. Would you achieve the same results by signing up for text notifications and then only accessing the accounts from the relative security of your home-networked computer? While accessing your accounts on the go can prove beneficial, you must decide if the potential security concern is worth the tradeoff.
By being mindful with how you use your device and connect to public wi-fi, you should be able to limit opportunities for someone to access your device.
Photo by Jack Moreh