What to do if my phone gets hacked?

Your phone carries a lot of your important data including your passwords, personal information, financial records, and much more, which makes it prone to hacking. It is important for you to protect your phone from such attacks and understand the signs of your phone being hacked. This article will help you identify when your phone is hacked and how to fix a hacked phone by following a few simple steps.

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How to know if your phone is hacked?

There are various signs that you must notice to know if your phone is hacked or not. Keep reading to find out the details:

Phone works slowly

If malware is installed on your phone, the phone will use more battery and other resources. Such malware work in the background can impact your phone’s performance. So, if you notice that your phone is working slowly and getting heated too quickly, check if your phone is hacked or not.

Spike in data usage

Malware also consumes data in the background. Therefore, if you see your daily data limit being exhausted too fast or your end-of-the-month postpaid phone bill being too high, it can be a sign of a hacked phone. If you don’t wish to do multiple online recharge for data, you should be careful of any spike in data usage.

Related read: How to check data usage of Android & iPhone devices

Strange app behaviour

If the mobile applications on your phone switch off and your phone hangs, or crashes repeatedly without any command from your end to open or close, it is a sign of your phone being hacked.

Too many pop-ups

Malware and spyware also lead to many pop-ups on your phone. Look out for the same.

Suspicious activity

Look out for mobile apps that you didn’t download, text messages you didn’t send, or purchases or phone calls you didn’t make. If you see something suspicious, it can be a sign of your phone being hacked.

What to do if your phone is hacked?

Here are a few things to do if your phone is hacked:

Change passwords

You need to secure your phone right away by changing all your passwords. Create a strong password with a combination of alphabets, numbers and special characters to secure your phone. You can also use an online password generator to create a random and strong password.

Related read: Top 10 Best Wi-Fi Password Ideas

Use an anti-malware software

Conduct your own research and find anti-malware software or an app on your phone to detect any malicious apps or processes in your phone. Make sure you choose an app that doesn’t track or collect your data.

Delete suspicious apps

If you do notice any suspicious apps on your phone, delete them right away. In case there are no suspicious apps, delete any apps you downloaded recently.

Switch off mobile data and Wi-Fi when not in use

It is recommended to keep your mobile data and Wi-Fi switched off when not in use to ensure malicious software doesn’t use up your data to power their scrupulous activities.

Restore or format your phone

If nothing works, as a last resort, you need to restore or format your phone to its factory settings to eliminate every malware or spyware in your phone. Make sure you have a backup of all your important data from the phone. A factory reset will delete everything on your phone.

Additionally, remember to inform your friends and family to delete and ignore any suspicious texts that they get from your number.

How to remove a hacker from your Android phone?

There is one sure-shot solution to fix a hacked phone. Follow these steps for an Android-hacked phone:

Perform a factory reset by following the below steps:

• Head to the settings app on your phone.
• Tap on Backup and Reset.
• Now tap on Factory data reset.
• Confirm by tapping on Reset Device.
• Go through the list of data that will be deleted from your phone.
• Finally confirm it by tapping on Erase Everything button.

Note: These above-mentioned steps can be used for Samsung Android phones (with Android 5.0 and above). Your Android phone will have similar steps.

If you are not sure about factory reset, we recommend talking to a professional to conduct the same for your hacked phone.

How to remove a hacker from your iPhone?

If you are wondering ‘My iPhone is hacked! How do I fix it?’, then simply follow the steps below to fix your hacked iPhone right away.

• Perform general troubleshooting steps like securing your Apple ID, resetting your Apple ID password, etc.

The steps are mentioned below:

1. Sign into your Apple ID account. In case you can’t sign in, try resetting your password.
2. Change your Apple ID password with a strong password.
3. Set up two-factor authentication for your Apple ID.
4. Update your security questions and answers in case you think they might be easy to guess.

• Delete any mobile application which you haven’t downloaded from the App Store.
• Perform a factory reset for your hacked iPhone

1. Head to the settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
3. You can do one of the following things:

Prepare content and settings to transfer to a new iPhone: Tap on Get Started, then follow the instructions. When you finish, return to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone, then tap Erase All Content and Settings.

Erase all your data from your iPhone: Tap Erase All Content and Settings.

Once your phone is reset, you can log in to your Apple ID in order to restore all your previous data and settings.

Keep your passwords strong and set up multi-factor authentication everywhere, so as to secure your phone better. Additionally, we recommend you to not download any suspicious mobile applications on your phone. They can be the potential reason for malware in your phone. You can also invest in good antivirus software to detect such malicious processes right away and eliminate them before they do any real damage.

Hopefully, you are now better equipped with how to fix a hacked phone.