10 Red Flags That Tell If Your Phone Is Hacked

Date: November 02, 2023

As a smartphone user, it is tough to believe that your phone can be hacked easily. But noticing these 10 signs can help you ensure your phone is hack-free.

Whenever we see a new application that is either attractive enough or claims to solve a challenge too personal to us, we often forget to check if the app is secure or not. Even though the Play Store and App Store have enough security measures before listing any app on their platform, some applications tend to be smart enough to do their sneaky spying. But you can be a smarter smartphone user by identifying potential indicators of a spy or hacker app.

1. Over-Draining Of Phone Battery

The very first thing that a spy app does is to hide itself within your phone, and that takes up a lot of battery power. While there are many more reasons for a battery to drain itself, they will not be regular. If your phone loses more power regularly than you usually experience, you might want to check the installed apps list for any unwanted or hidden applications.

2. Overheating Of The Back Panel

When you are not using your phone, if the phone seems to be heating up, then there can be three reasons behind it. The first reason is a bad phone cover. The second reason is the inadequate charging station or keeping the phone under highly insulating material while charging. The third reason is a hacker or spy app trying to get the work done when the phone is trying to exist in standby mode.

3. Unusual Social Activity

Do you ever notice someone following you or getting added to your follower list without any memory of them ever interacting with you beforehand? This is one of the most common things done by hacking apps that aim to increase user following for profit. The second most common activity is enabling permissions for Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat accounts without your notice.

4. Glitches In The Matrix

Does your high-end smartphone suddenly start stuttering? These glitches might be due to an unstable update version. If there was no update to your phone or your memory is not full, the phone should ideally not glitch as much as a spying app makes it. You will notice a clear pattern of glitches as many spyware apps function during certain hours of the day.

5. Strange Activity By The Phone Itself

What would you do if your phone suddenly started restarting too much or randomly entered Airplane mode? These kinds of strange activities are classified as key indicators of a hack. First, the blame can go to the system firmware, which usually never goes bad. If that clears the suspicion stage, you might want to get the security check done on your phone ASAP.

6. Ad Popups

We may be used to the Ad pop ups on the websites we visit or applications we download, but if an Ad pops up on your phone screen, it is a clear sign of an app hacking your main interface. No application is allowed to show ads outside its UI. So beware.

7. Fake Apps

Even though Google is quite stringent in its security checks, some applications successfully impersonate genuine apps and then land on your phone. The difference can be in a minute detail like the Capital A in ReliAnce. Many users miss these details and end up not only downloading but also giving permission to access their phone’s multiple aspects that can leak personal information.

8. Higher Mobile Data Usage

With the abundance of data usage on Wifi, most of them being unlimited, Mobile data remains the only checkpoint to identify a potential hack. But this aspect is quite foggy as many applications with background activity permission can also drain your mobile data usage. In case you witness higher mobile data usage, simply check which apps are draining it and then find out why they are doing so. If you don’t get a clear answer, removing that app is the best next step.

9. Unidentified Photos

Image cache is one thing, and a random person’s photo in a separate folder is another. People often take these unidentified photos as an honest mistake by themselves and move on with their lives after deleting those photos. But, these can be a potential sign of a hack that happened on your phone.

10. Unknown Messages Sent From Your Phone

Many people have found random numbers sent to unknown contacts in their sent folders of messaging apps. These messages may contain encrypted messages that might include your personal information or even your critical phone security access codes. No app is allowed to send messages or read on your behalf unless you allow it to.

Keeping your phone secure is an important exercise we must conduct regularly. To do so, you can either get a trusted antivirus software or check online security checker websites to identify potential hacks or spying activities and eliminate them.