No doubt, mobile technology has come as a blessing to us. But its side effect cannot pass unnoticed. Part of the cons of the advancement in mobile technology is its tendency to be breached, thereby making the private life of individual users to be vulnerable and insecure in some ways.
In this age, mobile phone is an integral part of an average human existence. It is the fulcrum on which all their other life activities is directed. From important phone calls to confidential text messages as well as emails, including calendar details marking important events and activities of mobile phone users.
All these could be intercepted by a spy checking on the activities of the mobile phone. Therefore, it is highly important to know when and how to prevent the intrusion of spies on your phones. The following signs to be discussed are what you should look out for when you suspect spy activities on your phone..
Your Phone Battery Life
It is normal for your battery to reduce its usage time after many recharges as stated in the manual that comes with some phones. As phones get old, they tend to lose their battery life. But a sudden drop in battery life should be of concerned as this could be the activities of spy apps on your phone. Spy apps expends a lot of phone resources and are often active in the background most of the times. Thus their activities often drain battery life.
Data Usage
Have you ever noticed that your phone exhausts data more than it should? This could be a sign of possible attack on your mobile phone. Spy apps usually communicate with hackers therefore, they would need data to send the information gathered on your mobile phone like GPS, Contact details, Emails etc. This is grossly unfair as it is not only that the spy gets access to one’s personal life, they also use the victim’s hard-earned resources while doing so.
Continuous Rebooting
Though it is common for some phones to reboot every now and then due to factory bugs, rebooting is also a possible reason why you should consider your phone already compromised. However, you should look out for other signs as this is not enough to make conclusions of a spy attack.
Temperature
Normally, the temperature of phones depends on its usage. If you were the type that stays long on the internet or play games on your smartphone, you would have noticed your phone getting hot, this shouldn’t call for panic. However, if you notice this sign while your phone is idle or being operated normally, then the possibility of spy attack should be considered.
Beeps
Do you often hear random beeps on your phone? Even while you are not receiving any message or call, your phone might just beep for no reason. This is a good sign that spy related activities is going on in the background of your phone.
Now that we have discussed the signs to look for when you want to know whether or not your phone has been compromised, it will only be right to discuss how to thwart spy attack on your phone.
How to fight off Spywares on your Phone
Unroot the Phone
Rooted phones have their benefit in that they are able to perform beyond the factory limit. However, they are more vulnerable to spies than unrooted phones. Therefore if you happen to have rooted your mobile phone before, try to unroot it with apps like SuperSU or any of the Root Android Softwares. You can find these apps on Play Store.
Download SuperSU on Play Store
Download Root Android Software on Play Store
Manual digging
Search for the app you suspect might be the spyware on your phone and uninstall it. Most often, it is usually one of the recently downloaded apps but sometimes, spywares take their time before they attack. So you might want to check the not too old apps too.
Wipe the phone
Either manual wiping or complete flashing of the phone’s ROM would set the phone back to its factory state. However, you should only try the later after the former must have failed to work.
In conclusion, it is said that prevention is better than cure. Therefore you should always try to prevent your phones from spies before they have the opportunity to attack at all. Minding what and where you download your apps matters a lot. You should also be careful as to where you visit on the World Wide Web. Because as the prospects of mobile technology grows so does its side effect. Therefore, always be on the look out!