Category: Security Tips for Your Device

Stalkerware apps will threaten your safety unless you avoid it

Stalkerware apps will threaten your safety and privacy unless you know how to avoid it.

There could be an app on your phone that might allow someone else to spy and monitor your activities. How will you feel if you find out that someone could view your personal data? Three of the best things Technology has to offer are:

  • Social networking
  • Video chats
  • Other tools

Three of the worst things Technology has to offer are:

  • Harassment
  • Bully
  • Terrorize

The worse of all is an app installed no your phone which allows someone else to eavesdrop on your conversation thereby invading your privacy. Therefore, it is paramount that you educate yourself about how to protect yourself from stalkware via various apps. Avoidance is far better than trying to do damaged control. Victims will tell you that the right solution to this problem is to avoid any mishap.

If you have access to the internet or you’re online stalkerware apps could be installed on your phone without your knowledge or permission. This app operates in stealth mode, therefore you’re unaware of its presence on your device. This app cannot be installed remotely through malware or other means. Physical access is needed for this to be installed on your device. This fraudulent act is mostly carried out by people who are close to you.

Installing the app will be done within a few minutes if the phone is locked or unprotected by a PIN, password, or other forms of security. If you share your security means with someone you thought you could trust such as a spouse, partner, or a friend, they could easily install this app on your device. There are different types of stalkerware apps which allows the intruder to perform some or all of the activities below:

  • Read anything you type such as password to bank accounts, online stores, or social media. Each stroke you type reveals sensitive details to the intruder.
  • Your movement is easily monitored through GPS location.
  • Record phone conversations or just listen to hear vital information
  • Access to message even if they are encrypted
  • Monitor social network activities
  • Look at videos and photos
  • Switch camera on

According to a reliable source over 50,000 users of this mobile security app were affected by Stalkware in 2020, this figure is probably higher. A report from the European institute for gender equality claims that using stalkerware apps against women is rampant. According to them seven out of ten women in Europe are most likely a victim of cyber stalking and experienced a form of sexual or physical violence from a partner.

Stalkerware app is normally downloaded from an unofficial source, such as a developer’s webpage and could be used to sell other products. This app was banned from Google’s play store last year, the app did not gain much ground on IOS due to Apple’s ecosystem. The app could still be installed on a jailed break iPhone. A tricky one is to be gifted with an iPhone and not being aware that this app has already been installed on the phone.

Stalkerware could pose as a child or an employee monitoring tool but in reality, activities are being monitored for selfish reasons. The law is gradually catching up in some countries such as France, monitoring someone’s activities without their consent is an offence and punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to 45,000 euro. In the united states, a Developer of a stalking app was fined $500,000. Another narrowly escaped penalty after vowing to change the app’s functionality.

Now that it has been established that stalkerware could be running on your device without your knowledge. There are signals that will inform you if this app is currently running on your device.

  1. If your device overheats, the battery drains quicker than normal and mobile date usage is high, these are pointers that you might have a stalkerware on your phone.
  2. You must carry out a regular antivirus check on your device through scanning. If you detect a stalkerware on your phone through your security means, don’t remove it straight away, it could be a wrong move that might be detected by the intruder. The best thing is to consult a Technician who is trained to handle these issues.
  3. Regular checks on your browser’s history is important. You don’t want the intruder to visit sites that you don’t normally visit, thereby getting you into trouble.
  4. Are you aware of the unknown settings? If unknown sources are active on your device, this could be an indication of the installation of unwanted apps from third party sources.
  5. A lot of people installed apps without much consideration. Stalkerware app could be installed under a wrong name giving you the impression that you are installing the right app. This offers unauthorised access to your messages, call logs and other activities.

Avoidance as stated earlier is the best protection, discover more ways below to avoid any mishap.

1.If you give your device to someone, it’s advisable to carry out some of the checks listed above just to ensure that you’re protected. Don’t ever leave your phone unlock.

2.A Complex screen password is the best and ensure that your password is changed on a regular basis.

  1. It’s a wise move not to disclose your password to anyone. It’s up to you if you want to disclose your password to your partner, spouse or close friends. Good relationships are built on trust.
  2. Delete unused apps because they could be vulnerable, read reviews about apps before making a purchase.
  3. Disabled the third-party option to install the app on your device.
  4. Ensure you have cybersecurity protection that warns you about a threat before processing to visit a site or download an app.

In Conclusion

Prevention is better than cure is a very popular statement. This statement is more real today in the tech age. You need to consider if learning how to protect your data is better rather than finding the solution about how to do damaged control. Furthermore, your data will definitely be used against you which could lead to a lot of problems and the cure might do less or no damaged control. Be warned!

How to protect your data from online Fraudsters!

Everybody loves freebies, but do you know that freebies could sometimes put you through unnecessary stress, perhaps even heart attack if your phone is compromised? What I’m trying to say is if you use free Wi-Fi to access sensitive information on your smart phone, your phone could be compromised. Public places such as coffee shop and airport are some of the most common places where people connect to free WI-FI because they are trying to save data on their phone.

Does this mean that you cannot use an unsecured Wi-Fi? Yes, you can via VPN which stands for virtual private network. There are based, service apps that help with secured data on your phone and they are quite affordable.

On the other hand, if you think you don’t need a VPN then make sure that you don’t sign into a bank website, your credit card company’s website and even your email account. If at all you’re going to check your email the first thing to do is to look at the address bar to make sure it’s the correct address. The website should come up with HTTPS and not HTTP, it’s an indication that you’re logging in to a secure connection. There should be a padlocked symbol next to the URL if this indication does not exist, it simply means that the connection is not secure.

One of the worst nightmare for anyone is to find out an unauthorised person has access to your:

  • Email account
  • Bank details
  • Credit card details
  • Sensitive information
  • Pictures
  • Videos

This is one of the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone, especially in this digital age, but then it’s pretty common, mobile devices are referred to as smartphones and yes no doubt they are really smart with the things they do for us, but you also need to be aware that Hackers are also becoming smarter.

One of the major mistakes we tend to make in the name of convenience is to have the same password for multiple websites, this is very dangerous. You must create different passwords for different websites and then use one of the services that store all the different passwords for you and then you log in to this various websites through this service automatically. This will create the convenience you crave which pushes you to use a single password on multiple website in the first place.

If the worst should happen and your phone is hacked then the Hacker will have access to all the websites you have an account with, it’s vital you have a unique password, doesn’t mean it’s completely safe but it’s some form of safety measure.  The saying, “It’s better to be safe than be sorry is extremely useful when it comes to our data.

 

 

How to protect your data from internet Fraudsters

Have you noticed any changes to your smart phone lately do you think that your phone is performing at a very low performance? If this is the case, it’s a sign that your phone might have been hacked. Timing is everything is an old saying, but is still very much useful in today’s world. Have you noticed delays when:

  • Dialling a number
  • Checking your voicemails
  • Sending and receiving text messages

Paying more attention to your phone functionality is one of the ways to do damaged control in case your phone has been compromised.  The fast paced world we live in now means we have more things competing for the twenty four hours that we are all entitled to but ensuring that your phone is secured from Hacker should be paramount.

The worst nightmare for, you will be to find out that somebody has an unauthorised access to the following information:

  • Your videos
  • Your phone contact list
  • Your documents
  • Your email

If the hacker is using a key logger he or she will be able to monitor every keystroke you type on your phone’s keyboard which means revealing:

  • Your passwords
  • Your personal information
  • Your credit card information
  • Your bank information
  • And other sensitive documents.

One of the easiest ways for Hackers to have an unauthorised access to your phone is if you click the weird link embedded in a text message. The link comes as a disguise like a text message you normally receive from people you know such as parents, friends, or colleagues and because text messages are part of our daily activities, something we do constantly we never really take our time to check the authenticity of these text messages. So if you click on the link in a text messages your smart phone will be corrupt and access could be given to the person on the other end who might eventually take over your device.

You need to train yourself to make sure that any time you receive a text message, First things is to establish that it’s coming from a reliable source. If you get a text message from someone you don’t know and ask you to click and view a picture or to watch a funny video, you shouldn’t unless you are hundred percent sure that it’s coming from a reliable source.

One of the main things you can do to prevent easy unauthorised access to your phone is to enable the multi factor authentication feature, companies like Facebook, Google and major banks do have a multi factor authentication feature.

 

 

How to avoid data exposure to Hackers!

How to avoid data exposure to Hackers!

Are you knowledgeable about of how to protect yourself in this digital age? You will agree with me that your private information, be it text messages, phone calls or emails are not protected from hackers. Technology evolves every day so it’s quite imperative that you learn how to protect your data from hackers. If you are worried that your phone might have been hacked then you’ve come to the right place for help. In this article I will show you how to protect your information from hackers.

Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone or any other type of phone these tips will help you to discover if your smart phone has been hacked and you will also learn how to prevent this from happening in the future.

The first thing to study is if your battery gets drained quickly, then it will mean that there is an unauthorised app running in the background which could serve as a spy from cyber criminals. Although your battery getting drain quickly might be an issue with the software, if this is the case, then the best thing is to take your phone to the phone shop for a check-up.

The second thing is if your phone keeps shutting down automatically or if your phone starts an app or dial a random number this could be a hacker being in control of your phone. It’s good to establish as soon as possible if your phone has a technical fault or has been hacked.

The third thing is your phone is constantly warm or hot without much usage, it’s another sign that there could be an unidentified app running in the background and overheating is a sign of the phone being overuse. Check to make sure that you haven’t got unauthorised apps running in the background, if you do uninstalled such apps. If problem persists then it could be that your phone has been hacked.

The fourth thing is an unknown number in your recent call log, another sign that someone is tampering with your phone you must constantly keep an eye on your recent call log to ensure that someone is not screening your calls.

The fifth thing is being unable to control your phone such as having a problem turning it on or off.  You are also unable to control simple apps like brightness on the camera, a sign that hacker might have taken over your phone. You must make sure that you have control over your phone, if there is anything unusual not working then it’s time to do more investigation just to make sure that your phone has not been compromised.

If Hacker gain access to your phone, the first thing they will do most likely do is to gain control. They will disable certain if not all controls. These are some of the things to look out for if you are concerned that your phone might have been hacked, the early you discover the better it will be to do damaged control.

 

 

How to protect your phone data from Hackers

How to protect your phone data from Hackers!

One of the most dangerous things that could ever happen to anyone most especially in this digital age is to find out that somebody has access to your phone. An unauthorised human being has been able to gain control over your phone,  these people are known as hackers, if this happens this means that the hacker will have access to your:

  • Email address
  • Text messages
  • Videos
  • Pictures
  • Phone numbers from your contact list.

Furthermore, with the help of a key logger, the Hacker could monitor every keystroke you hit on the phone’s keyboard which means that they could easily get access to your:

  • Passwords
  • Personal information
  • Credit card information
  • Bank information
  • Sensitive information.

Some of the signs to look out for are:

Gmail and ICloud account are acting funny

This is a high risk, mainly because such accounts as these ones above keeps lots of information about you such as:

  • Password
  • Photos
  • Current Location
  • Messages

Research shows that some might not see email as a threat because they have no vital information in their mailbox. Such people ought to be aware that anytime you create an online account and you get a confirmation email, these emails often have information that could make it easier for a Hacker to steal your identity.

To prevent Hackers you must create strong passwords for your account and also enable login notifications for new computers or locations, in addition factor authentication must also be enabled. This means that your account will be inaccessible without an access to your smart phone.

One Password, Multiple Websites

Using one password for multiple sites is a wrong move just in case one of these sites gets compromised.  This problem could provide access to your account and the Hacker could even lock your device with an anti – theft feature, and have access to all the data stored on your account.

Unauthorised Transaction

Imagine getting an alert about an unauthorised transaction from your bank or Credit Card Company or going through your bank or credit card statements and you notice unauthorised transactions. A sign that your phone might have been hacked.

If you think an unauthorised person might have access to your phone, the first move is to change your password. You will have to do this on a different device or it’ll be a waste of time, resetting it on the same device simply mean the hackers being able to see the new password.

Awareness is powerful, having knowledge about what to do to prevent hackers or knowing the signs that your phone might have been hacked means you’re able to save the situation before things gets really bad.

 

 

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