By Rebecca James
Is the performance of your Smartphone seems deficient, if yes then be vigilant; it could be a malware functioning at the background
The mobile phone is the utility to which almost every person keeps his/her personal information. Nowadays, there are many privacy risks to our mobile phones also, due to which the sensitive information in it is being spied.
Also, any third party could get into your mobile phone including any hacker or scammer which is the most annoying one. But, other than that there is a chance of innovation to your mobile by your employer (sometimes legally!), an ex-partner, or even, in the case of celebrities, the press.
But you can avoid mobile tapping and can follow preventing steps, once you are aware it. Here are the few things which signal towards mobile tapping.
Smartphone Battery Issues
Smartphones are usually prone to hot batteries. However, before the android and IOS were found, the battery problems were thought to be a clue of phone tapping.
The Hot battery is often caused by the usage of many apps running simultaneously, but if you are doing so you are aware of it. Many times we often visit battery usage and they just tell it as fairly a standard of the smartphone. Instead, an unwanted software running in the background could be a cause of hot battery taking your data to another illegitimate source.
Also, a fast discharge of your battery could be concerning. Heavy files and massive downloading stuff could cause rapid battery consumption but without any such stuff, quick battery usage is a little confusing. To confirm any vicious issue on your mobile phone, you should eliminate all other possibilities before that.
However, for the hot battery, you must note your activities that might be causing it, such as phone casing preventing heat discharge, many apps running simultaneously, etc.
Expanded Data Usage
There are many apps that are huge and cover up a large space of data. But including free Wi-Fi offered in public places are pretty easy to reduce. A malware uses your data for transmitting the information to its sources. That means it uses the data of the WiFi to which you are connected, whether it be your home WiFi or a Public one. Whereas, if you are aware of the measures to remain secure while connected to a public Wi-Fi than this problem could be avoided.
For every month you know that how much data you use with all your routine activities. However, if you have downloaded an app that consumes much data or another heavy data absorbing stuff than your data usage could expand. But, without any such activity, if your data usage exceeds you routine limit then you should find a cause of it and if nothing seems to be the cause, someone probably intercepting your messages.
Unnecessary Apps and Ads
People using android are over obsessed of downloading apps. That’s why many of us wouldn’t even notice the addition of an app to our phone that we have not downloaded.
But you should be aware of the apps running on your phone in the background and the ones you haven’t downloaded could be harmful.
An example of such malware is the Hammer, a trojan that has infected the mobile phones of many users around the world including India, Russia, and Philippine. It was first recognized and spotted in 2014 and has become so infectious that it has given the name of Android Trojan virus.
Due to this, you could face some interruptions in the form of advertisements. Hummer is the app that doesn’t remain covered i.e. once it is installed it gets the commanding rights and downloads unwanted content to your android device which is really hard to eliminate.
On the average of 1.2 million affected devices daily, a lot of ads could be generated by hummer. So, if you notice any change in data usage you must look for it.
Dull Performance
Just like hummer, an app named hummingBad is a trojan that also accesses the administrative position into the device once you download a malware app that implies to be something else other than the real one.
Through giving ads after the app downloading, these scammers earn almost $300,000 in a month.
Giving your personal details, the hummingBad Malware takes the administrative commands of the device and transfers the details to a server regulated by a Chinese group ‘Yingmob’. However, it often poses a fake upgraded version to take the control of the device, if downloaded.
Due to all this process of transferring messages and other information from one server to another would cause performance issues and slow speed. These operational issues are often caused when any kind of malware or malicious stuff gets into your android device.
The app data usage could be check through certain ways. For Android click Settings > Apps and go to Running, after which the thing you would probably see on top must be images or music. But, if you see something that doesn’t give the sense you could always check it from here. However, For iOS you just have to access Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage and you would be able to check data usage by different apps.
Weird Text Messages
When you get an SMS from an unidentified source, you simply think it as a wrong number, spam or thing like that. But, sometimes it could also be a signal towards any vulnerability into your device.
These messages are mostly a series of unorganized numbers, letters or symbols which seem illogical. But, they could be malicious and harmful to your device.
Don’t Take It Easy
These messages are sent to your phone when a hacker tries to contact with the server or the fraudulent app in order to send them instructions, but something wrong in it could send these texts to your inbox which otherwise go unnoticed.
However, when someone in your contact list complains about getting wrong and strange texts from you which actually do not send from your phone, then it’s a sign that your phone is prone to any vulnerability. Yet, by sending these messages to your contacts, the scammer is trying to trap them as well by that malware.
So, you should be vigilant and aware of the messages you get and are send to you. For this, you must check your inbox and outbox regularly and if you notice any strange activity which has not been done by you than your device is probably tapped.
Transformation in Website Display
This is something hard and difficult to notice but being attentive and cautious could help you avoid any vulnerability.
These kinds of scams could be avoided and to which we are familiar with. But making mistakes and not following the rules may cause you extreme damage. For instance, if you click on an URL appears as text or email you could face a massive damage. However, the changing appearance of a website could be witnessed if a malware is working in the background, even without redirecting the site you could see the display changes.
This malware tracks the information you enter on the website or simply intercepts in between the site and you, getting the data from there. Also, any private browser could access by the fraudulent app. This might be an extreme issue if you are operating a site that needs any kind of personal and sensitive details such as password, banking details, etc.
If you notice such changes in the display of a website, it could also be the website itself upgrading their site. However, you can confirm it by viewing the same site on your PC.
Conclusion
If you are distressed, don’t be. Many of us are not vulnerable to such scams and malware.
But, to remain secure you have to be cautious about having protected apps in your smartphone. You must know about the secure browsing systems that could help you. Also, any app you are downloading should be accessed from an authentic source so as to reduce the risk. An antivirus could also be helpful in protecting you from such vulnerability.
Article by Rebecca James
