Phones make our life easier, more connected and interesting.
But they can bring a lot of trouble too.
And among the main ones is interference with our private life.
I'm talking about phone tapping.
How do they do it, and most importantly, what should you do to protect your phone?
This is Michael.
He hasn't left home for a few days.
The windows in his house are closed, the door is locked and the phone is disconnected.
He thinks that somebody’s watching him.
It seems that Michael is paranoid, but he isn’t.
His phone is actually being tapped by someone.
Fortunately, Bright Side is here to help.
So, to better know HOW to protect your phone from tapping, you must first find out HOW
they can do it.
Whoever they are.
1) Wireless connection.
Hackers can install malware without your knowledge.
It can easily enter your phone through MMS messages, mobile Internet, Bluetooth, or WiFi.
Found an unknown free Wi-Fi?
Received a strange file via Bluetooth or opened a link in a message from an unknown recipient?
Didn't clean your computer from viruses and connected your phone to it?
Or have you downloaded a "very awesome and absolutely free" app?
Congrats, now you’re at high risk of being tapped.
2) Special equipment There are special expensive devices to listen
to phones.
Typically, such a system consists of computers and a few telephones with special modifications.
Through mobile servers, a professional hacker can connect to your phone.
Such equipment is expensive and difficult to get, but it’s used more often than you
might think.
Here's how it works: let's say Michael calls his mom to say his birthday wishes to her.
A hacker across the street intercepts Michael's call signal and redirects it to his equipment.
The hacker is connected and now knows that Michael's mom will celebrate in a restaurant.
3) Super expensive equipment There are special listening stations that
can be controlled by a professional operator with special education and extensive experience.
Such stations can cost several thousand dollars and they’re not exactly legal.
Remember movies where heroes sit in "ice cream" vans and listen to people in real-time?
Yep, it works in real life too.
4) Instant messengers So that no one can read and listen to your
messages, instant messengers encrypt your dialogues.
To “crack” them, you need a special decryption code.
In some countries, though, there are instant messengers that don't use encryption and thus
leave your messages unprotected.
5) Own inattention.
The most commonplace and easiest way to put your phone at risk is to leave it somewhere
without a password or give it to someone “to play" with.
There're special easy apps that allow you to listen to any phone.
All you need is to install such a program on the phone that you want to tap.
Now Michael recalls that at a recent party he forgot his unlocked phone on the table
and briefly went away to meet his friends.
It's possible that some curious person seized the moment and installed this app.
There are so many dangers for gadgets that it’s impossible to protect yourself from
being tapped completely.
Fortunately for Michael, Bright Side knows some effective and pretty easy ways that can
protect his phone from tapping.
1) Change Password.
The easiest and most banal way – regularly change passwords on your gadgets.
Anybody can see your password or you can leave it on an insecure site, so try to change it
at least once a month.
And let it not be something kinda "qwerty" or "1111."
And especially not your date of birth.
Many sites and applications send alerts to your mail if someone tries to log into your
account.
In this case, the password should be changed immediately.
2) SMS code When entering personal details on a website,
use not only a password but also an SMS code.
An attacker won't be able to enter your profile if they know the password, but don't have
an SMS code.
3) Bluetooth.
Don't leave Bluetooth on if you're not using it.
Hackers can connect and you won’t even notice.
And even more so, never accept strange incoming files.
4) Wi-Fi Michael went to a cafe where the best pancakes
are made.
He wants to connect to the local Wi-Fi network and his phone finds two hotspots: “BestPancakes”
and “BestPancakes-1”.
Hmmm, in this case, it's better not to take risks and ask the cafe staff about the correct
network.
Otherwise, you risk giving access to your files to an unauthorized person.
Don't connect to unknown networks!
And the safest thing is to use a personal Wi-Fi modem.
5) Fake Apps “Hey, this cool app will show you who visited
your profile!!!”
“With this program, you can read other people's correspondence” — seen it on the Internet?
Don't download.
Firstly, because reading other people's messages is indecent, and secondly, when you download
programs like this, you risk becoming tapped yourself.
That's the irony.
How often do you click “Accept conditions” or “Allow access” on your phone?
Attackers hope that people don't pay attention to such things.
It’s better not to download programs from unreliable developers at all.
Fortunately, there are special programs that show which apps on your phone use access to
the camera, voice recorder, GPS, messages and other data.
Immediately remove such apps if you don't trust them.
Also, in the phone settings, you can restrict any programs from accessing your data.
6) App-lockers Like I said, don't put the phone into the
wrong hands.
But suppose Michael's friend asked his phone just "to play".
Michael doesn’t like to seem paranoid, but he doesn't want to give the phone away either.
For such cases, there are programs that lock and set password specifically for those files
that you want to hide.
Now Michael can safely give the phone to his friend.
7) There are also apps that fully protect your phone.
They block connections to dubious networks and communication channels, tell you if a
strange activity has appeared on your phone, and encrypt your conversations.
Michael is still afraid that someone is tapping his location using GPS.
No problem — here's the app that will fake your coordinates.
8) Another type of connection Most phones use the GSM communication protocol
for calling.
Unfortunately, this standard can be cracked by someone who has the necessary skills.
You can always change it to a more secure connection, though, for example, to CDMA.
Special phones are sold that support this method of communication.
True, it's not so cool as modern gadgets and is much more expensive.
But many important people, famous personalities and business people use telephones that have
their own encrypted communication service.
9) Computer Don't connect the phone to the computer if
you're not sure that it is clear from viruses.
This applies not only to others but also to your own.
Regularly clean and update security software.
And so that no one gets access to your browser history, use proxies.
The Internet is full of inexpensive programs with such servers.
Believe me, the "incognito window" doesn't protect you.
10) Update your software.
So many people don't like to update the software on their phones for various reasons.
“Oh, again?”
“It used to be better” “My software suits me completely.”
Michael simply doesn't want to spend time on this.
Too bad.
Hackers constantly find loopholes to crack your phones but, fortunately, developers respond
to this very quickly by releasing an update with improved protection.
By the way, often good hackers – white hat ones – help the developers in search of
such loopholes.
These "cyber knights" intentionally hack systems, and don't use it for bad purposes, but report
vulnerabilities to developers.
And get a lot of money for it.
11) Don’t talk about the important things Unfortunately, there are wiretaps against
which nothing helps.
Even if you throw out the SIM card or replace the phone.
If you suspect that your phone is being tapped, then just try not to discuss important information
over the phone.
Do it in person.
Michael used one of these methods and found out that a dubious program had been installed
on his phone that got access to the microphone.
It turned out that agents or hackers were not spying on Michael.
It's just that his mother wanted to know who Michael had been talking with for so long
at night.
If parents watch this video, remember.
Your child has the right to privacy.
Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a
friend!
And here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy.
Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!