How to hack the hackers

If your phone is acting strange, over-heating with excessive battery and data use, it may mean that you are being tracked, or you have one or more malignant, unwanted apps or files installed on your device.

If you suspect your device has been hacked, check it for suspicious apps and files you don't remember creating.

The following advice is designed to make you smarter.

How to Protect Your Device

The first thing to do is to frustrate whoever or whatever is trying to track you. Put your phone into flight mode or turn off data now and then. This will interrupt the flow of data, which will confuse whoever is trying to track you.

Then get to work.

Delete Suspicious Apps

If you installed a third-party app right before your phone started acting weird, there's a good chance that the app was infected with malware. Delete it immediately.

Check your apps list for anything you don't recognize, especially if they have the word "tracker" in the name, that means it's probably stalkerware. If apps start asking for permissions they don't need, like permission to access and modify files, that's a warning sign that they could be infected with malware.

Only install apps from trusted stores like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Double-check those as well by putting the developer's name in a web search, because bad apps sometimes get past even their vetting.

If you catch a new, unfamiliar app icon on your phone, this could be the result of spyware. Spotting unauthorized apps on your device can sometimes be tough — especially if you have a lot of apps on your phone. Make sure to review all the apps on your device under phone Settings. 

Make sure you know what apps are on your phone and what permissions you have given.

Hack (random check for spyware): if you use Tik Tok, open any post. Go to the share arrow (lower right hand) and hit it. This will show ‘share to’ options. Slide over to ‘more’ and hit the blue ‘more’ icon. This will show ‘more’ apps that are used for sharing on your phone. If you see a suspicious app, then delete it.

Check Your Location Settings

Someone might not even need to install an app on your phone to track you --- some apps that come with your smartphone are set up to share your location by default.

People can also track your location with Google Maps. To see if you're sharing your location with anyone via Google Maps, open the app, tap your account icon, then tap Location Sharing. If nobody is listed there, you're not sharing your location with anyone. If there are people listed, you can remove them or turn location sharing off.

It's a good idea to review permissions for all of your apps to make sure none of them are sharing your location. Apps that need your location to function, like Google Maps, should be set up to only share your location when they're being used.

Use Protection

Anti-malware, antivirus, and VPN apps can all help protect you and your data from being tracked. Scanning your phone regularly increases the odds that you'll find malware before things get too serious, and a VPN can also confuse trackers.

Factory Reset

If all else fails, you can try a full factory reset of your smartphone – but only as a last resort. This should revoke any access a malicious hacker gained through malware and delete any suspect apps that could be on your phone by returning everything to the way it was when your phone was fresh out of the box. Make sure to do a selective back up of your phone data if you choose to do a full factory reset, although you may run the risk of reimporting the problem.

For tips on factory reset, check on Google for your phone make and model.

Be cautious with unknown or unexpected texts

If you’ve received a surprise text from an unknown number beware — it could be a phishing or a hybrid spy-phishing scam. In these situations, the text may contain strange messages, urgent calls-to-action, or links that entice you to reply or tap. If you are not sure of a text or email then don’t open it and delete it immediately.

Regularly review location-sharing settings

When you enable location-sharing for an app to access all the features, don’t forget to turn it off again. It’s common to leave permissions on when you don’t need to.  

Good housekeeping: delete old, unused, or unknown apps

Running a device with loads of old, unused or even unknown apps is a security risk, especially if you don’t keep them all up-to-date. Check your device apps regularly and remove ones that you no longer use. Don’t flood your phone with useless apps.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kickboxing: PNG’s national sport

Image
(by Glenn Armstrong  https://www.tlamediagroup.com/ ) Call it sport, discipline, or martial arts – when it comes to active participation and character-building, kickboxing wins hands down over every other sport in Papua New Guinea. According to Stanley Nandex, President of the PNG Kickboxing Federation , there are currently 21 provinces in PNG where kickboxing clubs and schools can be found. In Simbu province alone, there are more than two thousand active participants. In rural areas of PNG, the lives of young men and women are being transformed, providing a positive pathway for personal development. SP Sports Award  The commitment of the PNG Kickboxing Federation to providing youth with better life choices was recognised recently when it won the 2024 SP Sports Award for Community Sports Initiative of the Year . In accepting the award, PNGKBF President Stanley Nandex said “This award goes to all the hard-working people behind the scenes who give opportunities to k...
Read more

WW2 plane found in Madang

Image
The wreckage of a plane named ‘Marge’ belonging to famous US WW2 air ace Richard Bong has been found in Madang, 80 years after it went missing. Major Richard Bong is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II. He famously plastered a blow-up of his girlfriend Marge Vattendahl’s portrait on the nose of his Lockheed ‘Lightning’ P-38 fighter plane, as shown in our main photo. During WW2, Bong shot down more planes than any other American pilot. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military’s highest decoration, by Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1944. But Bong wasn’t at the yoke when his plane went down. Another pilot, Thomas Malone was flying Bong’s plane in March 1944 when it encountered engine failure over Madang, forcing Malone to bail out before the plane crashed in the jungle. Bong’s aircraft wreckage was only recently discovered, on May 15, after two days of trekking by a search team led by Pacific Wrecks Director Justin Taylan. According t...
Read more

Ovu ga'hoe! Back cover reveal!

Image
  The following is the back cover text of Ricky Mitio's autobiography. “Ovu ga'hoe!” (I will not go!) These words of defiance were spoken by Ricky Mitio's mother, Mangkeo, as the dawn of a new age of Christianity swept through the New Guinea highlands, delivering its people from a long history of tribal warfare. It was this defiance that kept Mama Mangkeo and her family connected to their land, willing to accept the Light but not willing to go beyond it. It is of this Light, land and resilience that Ricky Mitio was born. In a fascinating story, Ricky Mitio was the first of his generation to gain an education and then lead a national organisation as the head of the lucrative coffee industry in Papua New Guinea. The son of one of the first native Lutheran evangelists in the Eastern Highlands Province, Ricky emulated his father's Christian pioneering spirit, only to find himself Papua New Guinea's most hired and fired state CEO, as his fledgling nation became a paradis...
Read more

Amazing! Parallel universes!

Image
Bang Bao, Koh Chang, Thailand (left) and Hanuabada, Port Moresby (right) In science fiction and fantasy, a parallel universe is a world theorised as existing alongside our own, which has similarities but is fundamentally different. The Cambridge Dictionary describes a parallel universe as:   “a world that exists in addition to, and is like, the world that we know, but that is also different from it in important ways.” And so, I entered a portal and was transported to the Kingdom of Thailand. Amazing Thailand When I arrived, I was amazed. I discovered that ‘Amazing Thailand’ is a promotional slogan of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to promote tourism. Originally conceived in 1998, the slogan was then extended for several years. Since then, it has become a permanent, and very appropriate, trademark of Thailand. Once I had entered this parallel universe, I soon realised that Thailand was tru...
Read more

Ricky Mitio's book for the ages

Image
In this year of Papua New Guinea's 50th anniversary of Independence, there is no person more qualified to reflect on the highs and lows than Ricky Mitio. I hope you enjoy reading this autobiography of a man who is the son of a tribal warrior born in the Stone Age who later became a pioneer evangelist of the Lutheran Church despite being completely illiterate. Ricky Mitio was among the first people in the country to be educated, learn a foreign language, work for this new means of exchange called money, travel to all districts of the country, and explore five continents of the world.  Ricky Mitio’s name is synonymous with the coffee industry in PNG. When he claims in this book that he is the Papa bilong PNG kopi, he is right. No one can dispute this or take it away from him. It will be his legacy until the end of the world. (From Ovu ga'hoe! Foreword by Tiri Kuimbakul) Ricky's book is due for release in March 2025.   More...
Read more