How To Know Your Android Phone Has Been Hacked And How To Fix It

SachinSangwan - Aug 30, 2019


How To Know Your Android Phone Has Been Hacked And How To Fix It

How can you protect your personal property from getting hacked? If you have no idea, the ways and methods mentioned below will surely help you out.

Nowadays, people store nearly all their personal and confidential information such as bank passwords, email IDs, files, etc., in their smartphones. Just wait and think for a moment, what will you do if someone hacks your smartphone? How can you protect your personal property from getting hacked? If you are an Android user and you have no idea, the ways and methods mentioned below will surely help you out.

In the year 2019, more than 2.5 billion people use a smartphone and store their data in it, that's why your device is the number one target for hackers to steal all your personal data. But the question is, how can you even know whether your phone is hacked or not?

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Your Android phone could be easily hacked, so you must be watching out

How to Know your that smartphone has been hacked (or got a virus)?

Viruses and hacks always change. A virus is a malicious code specially designed for some specific tasks such as pop-ups and flash ads, which trick you into clicking something wrong. If you have seen the following signs in your phone, it means your phone has already been hacked.

  • Device becomes slow
  • Malicious unwanted pop-ups
  • Randomly flash ads and pop-ups
  • Repeated app crashing
  • Bill with random charges
  • Extreme battery drainage
  • Unwanted app download and installation
  • Unexplained extra data usage

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Have you ever seen this screen before? Actually, Google is fighting with this. Randomly flashed pop-ups on the screen is a sign of a virus or some bad thing going on. When the above message appears on the screen, your phone starts vibrating, making noise or flashing and the back button stops working. In this situation, you need to immediately press the home key and close all the running apps. And make sure not to click on anything which pops up in the browser.

What to Look For

Random pop-ups are among the first, but definitely not the only thing you need to look for. There are so many other signals, which are on the above list, and here are the explanations for them.

If you feel that your device is working very slowly, there might be a virus behind the scene using the CPU. High data usage and an increase in phone bill is also a sign of a virus, how? If you feel that your data usage is going beyond the daily or monthly limit even when you haven't used your any, it's possible that a hacker has already hacked your device and because there is some malware sending texts to premium numbers, hackers can easily make money while you're paying extra. If you want to check your data usage, visit Settings, then tap on Connections > Data Usage and view to identify which app is using more data than it should.

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If any app is consuming more data than it's supposed to, there may be something wrong.

Typically, it is very hard to find keyloggers or malware in a phone or tablet, but they leave traces. No matter if it's an unwanted app draining your battery or a new app that installed itself, all these malicious codes use your resources, data, and battery too. If you feel that someone has hacked your phone, immediately head to Settings > Battery > Battery Usage and check if there is anything unusual.

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As you can see in the above picture, there is an app named 'Miscellaneous' which has used 70% battery of your phone; it can be a virus or keylogger, which is trying to hide its own identity. The app you did not install could be the reason.

What to do if the phone got hacked?

Now, what would you do if your phone gets hacked? There are a few methods such as factory reset or uninstalling apps, installing anti-virus apps, which you can try to get rid of this problem.

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The easiest way to get rid of hacks or viruses is by installing anti-virus apps from the Google Play Store. On the Play Store, you'll get various anti-virus apps, but you need to choose a reputable brand such as BitDefender, Malwarebytes, and AVG. Install the app and go for a full system scan, it helps you delete the malware.

Uninstall unwanted or bad apps

If you observe any app which you did not install taking lots of data or battery, go to Setting > Apps >Tap on App Manager. Here, find the app and uninstall it by clicking on the 'Uninstall' button.

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Note: Make sure you don't uninstall any system app as it causes more harm to your device. So be careful before hitting the 'Uninstall' button. If you don't know about system apps, go on Google and get the information about the apps. And don't install any app from the sources other than the official Play Store so that you get virus-free apps which do not harm your device.

Erase all the data if you have to

If none of the above-mentioned ways is working out, you can try this last method. It will definitely solve your problem. This last way is to wipe all the data or factory reset. It erases all your data from the phone, and after that, your phone will perform just like a new device. This is the best method to remove all the malware or viruses but a little bit hectic. For doing this, dead to Settings then tap on Backup and Reset, click on Reset > Factory Data Reset. After a few minutes, you'll see your phone empty.

How to protect your Android phone from a virus attack or from getting hacked?

After freeing your phone from malware and viruses, it becomes very important to protect the device from further virus attacks. Below, we have some tips which will help you keep it safe from malware and other malicious codes.

  • Install all system updates when your phone suggests.
  • For downloading apps, only use the Play Store or other official app stores.
  • Disable "Install from Unknown Sources" in Phone settings.
  • For security using passwords, face ID, fingerprint or PIN to lock your phone.
  • Install trusted brand anti-virus in your phone.

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