How To Keep Your Phone Safe From Hackers

 

Image credit - Pixabay

Hacking is rampant these days, especially with smartphones storing so many things that relate to us. 

The use of smartphones has made every one of us vulnerable to the activities of hackers and internet fraudsters. Such information as online banking details, identity, email, accounts (Apple ID or Google account), social media accounts, credit/debit card details, etc.

Phone hackers target these data and compromise them without the owner's knowledge. They can do so much damage to your data or account once they have them. 

For instance, they can use your social media account to send pornographic videos to your contact and others. They can also send messages to your contact to solicit funds. They can do much more than that.

The question of how to keep your phone safe from hackers is answered in this post. Do read on for more.

Symptoms Of A Hacked Phone

Your phone may be under attack once you notice one or two of the following:

• Your phone battery gets drained faster than normal; malware and fraudulent apps are on your phone.
• Your phone drags when being used.
• Your phone crashes or freezes and does an unexpected restart
• Your online account starts having strange activities
• Your phone starts getting unknown calls or text messages.

Once you notice any or all of the above, it is time to swing into action because you are under attack by a hacker. What you need to do is to fight back and outwit them at their game. It would be best first to eradicate any malware on your phone. After that, you can now follow the steps presented below to keep your phone out of reach of hackers.

11 Tips and Tricks To Prevent Hackers From Invading Your Phone

1. Stop downloading unreputable apps and ensure you go through reviews by other users before you download any app.
   
   
2. Avoid jailbreaking your phone because it exposes your phone to various risks. It allows malware or spyware to get into your phone. It makes room for downloading apps from unofficial app stores.
   
   
3. Let your phone be in your custody every time. You become vulnerable once your phone leaves your presence and gets into a hacker's reach.
   
   
4. Up your security game by using passcodes and passwords that are not easy to guess. Avoid using your birthday or any other date. Do not use default codes like 0000 or 1234. Ensure you use an alpha-numeric password that is longer than six characters. Also, do not use a general password on all your accounts. That makes it easy for them because all other accounts are opened once they get one.
   
   
5. Store passwords away from your phone or device. Understandably it's not easy to remember all passwords from different accounts. The solution is to download a password managing app like Kaspersky Password Manager or other good ones. These apps help you manage and keep your passwords from the prying eyes of hackers.
   
   
6. Clear your internet history, cache, and cookies as frequently as you use your phone. Cookies, caches, and browsing history leave traces about you behind, which hackers can use to attack your accounts.
   
   
7. Update all your phone apps regularly. Updates come with fixes that stamp out bugs that hackers can exploit to attack your phone.
   
   
8. Enable two-factor authentication to increase your phone security. If a hacker gets your password and successfully uses it, he might not be able to proceed until he adds the second level of security. An example includes fingerprint, face ID, security questions, etc.
   
   
9. Be cautious about using public Wi-Fi, and if you must use it, then ensure you activate VPN (a virtual private network). VPN encrypts and makes your data anonymous to unwanted viewers. There are different vendors with the product you can download on your phone to use for this.
   
   
10. Activate "lost device tracking service" on your phone. Your phone might come with one for use, but if it doesn't, then download one from a reputable vendor.
    
    
11. Avoid giving your phone to strangers to make emergency calls; they might be disguised hackers.

Bottomline

Your phone is you; keep it as safe as your heart. A single activity of a hacker can lead to years of damage to you. It can result in identity theft, financial fraud, etc.

Source

#Tech
#Android
#iOS