How to check if your phone is being spied on. Myths and reality

Cyber ​​Yozh Academy has collected the main “symptoms” of surveillance by smartphones that are available on the Internet.

Internet site Habr published an article by Cyber ​​Yozh Academy, in which the authors described ways to check if your mobile phone is being spied on.

Each of them is commented on by a specialist in the field of mobile malware, and at the end, based on his words, we make a conclusion.

Statement: Noise and interference are a sign that your mobile device is being tapped.

Expert comment: wiretapping is a passive process without interference in data transmission, noise and interference are most likely evidence of a faulty phone speaker. And yes, a bad connection cannot be a sign: today data is transmitted digitally, it will either reach the addressee or not, and in this case the recipient will hear only part of your words.

Conclusion: This is a misconception.

Claim: Strange behavior of a phone, such as the screen turning on by itself, is a sign that the owner is being spied on.

Expert comment: Indeed, when your phone is infected, it may behave strangely, caused by incomplete compatibility with your model or errors made by the developer. But a similar effect can also occur as a result of using any other program that is not optimized for your phone model, operating system, or contains errors.

Conclusion: This is not a sign of espionage.

Claim: Overheating phone when idle is a sign of cyber espionage.

Expert comment: This is just a sign that some application is actively exploiting the phone, but it could also be a perimeter wiretap using malware. In any case, this is an alarming sign that should not be ignored.

Conclusion: This is a warning sign.

Claim: My phone's battery started draining faster, which means I'm being spied on.

Expert comment: All phones start to discharge faster over time, but if this happens suddenly, then most likely the energy is being relentlessly spent on some tasks. There is a non-mythical possibility that this is spying on you. This, like the heating of the phone, is a reason to worry.

Conclusion: This is a cause for concern.

Claim: My phone refuses to update and keeps giving me an error message – this is because I have software that spies on me.

Expert comment: I have never encountered such behavior of a phone when it was infected with cyber-espionage software, especially if we are talking about professional software; it is very likely that we are talking about some software failures or incompatibility of components. I would like to note that timely updating is one of the most important elements of the comprehensive security of your mobile device, and the lack of the latest updates is a reason to worry.

Conclusion: This is a cause for concern, although it is unlikely to be the result of someone spying on you.

Claim: My phone has started using too much internet traffic, which means my phone is spying on me and sending the collected data somewhere.

Expert comment: and this is really true extremely alarming sign; if we are talking about 100 MB of outgoing Internet traffic per day, it is very likely that the phone really is collecting data about you. This is the worst symptom of all those discussed in this article. If your phone sends a large amount of data every day, this is not just a reason to worry, it is a reason to sound the alarm. This is usually how you can detect cyber spyware that collects data daily and sends it to the control server.

Conclusion: This is a very alarming sign.

How to prevent your mobile phone from being infected with spyware?

There is no single effective piece of advice here, as device security is a set of measures and habits. Considering the complex systems that state intelligence agencies use, the likelihood that you will attract the state's attention is extremely high.

What to do if you notice suspicious symptoms of surveillance from a mobile device?

Unfortunately, the only real method of ridding an infected device of cyberespionage software is to change the phone. Such a radical measure is forced, since malicious software can penetrate the phone's firmware. Therefore, reinstalling the system and, especially, resetting the settings may not give results.

P.S. Editor's opinion: if you can completely change the firmware, this can really help. However, this procedure is not always successful even for professionals. I want to note – if you “Elusive Joe“, it is unlikely that the state will be interested in you. Most likely, you will catch some kind of infection from hackers in passing. And this is the topic other publication.

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