You use your phone to store family pictures, do money transfers, and more. If a threat actor accesses your device, your entire life will be compromised. So, how can you stop a hacker from accessing your phone remotely?

Logging out of all accounts, changing passwords, and deleting suspicious apps is the best way to deal with someone accessing a phone without the owner’s consent. Preventing the issue by enabling multi-factor authentication and following cybersecurity best practices is a must.

There’s no need to be paranoid when it comes to phone access: you’ll notice clear-cut signs when a threat actor tries or succeeds in accessing one of your devices without your consent. Knowing what to look for is the best way to determine if you have to take action.

Has Someone Accessed Your Phone Remotely?

Threat actors leave a trail when they access your phone remotely. You’ll realize someone used your phone without you knowing when your phone’s battery drains faster than usual, your phone is warm when you don’t use it, and you have unknown apps running in the background.

Signs someone has accessed your phone remotely:

• Battery lasts too little. Remote access is a resource-intensive action, meaning your phone will use a lot of power when someone is accessing it from afar. Most hackers want to listen to what you’re doing, so you’ll both use it at the same time, making your phone use twice as many resources as usual.
• Temperature rises without use. Your phone should be cold when you’re not using it (unless you’re charging its battery). However, someone could be using it remotely: if a hacker looks at your pictures or uses apps on your phone without you knowing, you’ll notice a spike in the temperature of your device.
• Unknown apps in storage. An easy way to access your phone without your consent is via spy apps. Parents usually use that kind of software to check on their kids’ phones, though threat actors use it to steal information or money from people too.
• Strange noises during phone calls. Most people associate wiretaps with law enforcement – but people other than cops can listen to your phone calls. Hearing clicking noises during a phone call means someone is using old tech to listen to your conversations.

Best Ways To Stop Remote Access to Your Phone

Log Out of All Accounts

Your first step should be logging out of all accounts if you suspect someone is accessing your device remotely without your consent. Since a lot of devices are in sync, someone with your login credentials could potentially do a lot of harm with that information.

Someone with your Google account (or iCloud account) isn’t accessing your phone remotely, technically speaking. However, they can access your apps, pictures, and pretty much everything that you have on your phone, so it’s as if they were accessing it remotely.

Change Your Passwords

Logging out from your device fixes half the issue. Threat actors can continue to control your phone once you sync it back with your account if someone has your password. For that reason, logging out is the first step – changing your password should be the next thing you do.

However, changing your password is not something you should do without thinking. Take five minutes to do so, and follow password creation best practices to achieve your goal. Using “password” as a password isn’t a very good idea.

In contrast, thinking about a 16-letter password that follows no pattern (e.g., involves no personal information and is mostly a made-up word) is the best thing you can do.

Delete Any Apps You Can’t Trust

Parents use spyware apps to check on their kids’ online behavior. They’re also great for stealing information and money from victims. Unfortunately, most threat actors will use them to do that.

You could have spyware on your phone for two reasons: downloading malware in disguise or leaving your phone unlocked out of sight.

Downloading apps from trustworthy app stores (such as Google Play) is a must to prevent downloading malware you think is a game app.

Locking your phone is key to prevent threat actors from having physical access and downloading something to it without you knowing.

Disconnect Your Phone From Untrustworthy Networks

Hackers can use public networks to steal your data. They can also create fake ones to bait you. For that reason, encrypting your information when working from a coffee shop or similar is a must. However, that’s not enough.

Being paranoid isn’t necessary, though you should check and double-check the networks you decide to trust with your device if you continue to have issues after taking every measure to avoid them.

There are countless free wi-fi hotspots for you to enjoy – but that doesn’t mean you should trust them. Some of them are a trap to steal your login credentials, which could be causing your issue if you continue to log out (and change passwords) and hackers continue to access your phone remotely.

Perform a Factory Reset

If everything else fails, a factory reset will return your phone to its original state: doing so will delete everything but the OS and other essential files. In other words, you’ll delete every picture, piece of information, and possible spyware apps you have on your phone.

This method is the best way to deal with persistent issues you can’t solve in any other way. However, it will not fix the problem if someone is accessing your device because it has the login credentials you continue to use on your phone.

For that reason, it’d be best if you first logged out, changed your passwords, deleted all possible spyware apps, and tried using trustworthy networks alone before factory resetting your device.

How To Prevent Hackers From Using Your Phone

• Enable multi-factor authentication. Passwords leak all the time. At the same time, most people don’t know how to create a truly secure passcode. For that reason, enabling some sort of multi-factor authentication (like 2FA) could be a great way to prevent any issues from happening, even when a threat actor steals your login credentials.
• Don’t use devices you can’t trust. You can synchronize different devices, meaning someone else could access your phone if you logged your account elsewhere and forgot to log out. Someone who gets a hold of a computer with your iCloud information could do a lot of harm. For that reason, never use your account on insecure devices.
• Install an antivirus. Having an antivirus on your phone is a great way to prevent malware from spreading and doing damage. However, it’s not a magic fix you can’t rely on: you have to follow best practices, no matter how bulletproof your antivirus is.
• Remember cybersecurity best practices. Not clicking links you can’t trust is one of the best ways to prevent hackers from accessing your phone. Not downloading suspicious apps is also how you keep your phone under your control. Cybersecurity best practices keep you safe.

Conclusion

Log out of all accounts, change your passwords, and delete untrustworthy apps from your phone if you suspect a third party accessed your device remotely without your consent. U.S. Cybersecurity recommends performing a factory reset as the last resort (though a sure way) to deal with the issue. Preventing the problem is the first step you must take.