I’m a professional hacker – here are the signs someone like me is inside your phone
Laura Kankaala, a professional hacker, shared signs that your smartphone has been hacked
Cybercriminals may live in the shadows of the digital world, but a professional hacker has shared signs that they are lurking in your smartphone.
White Hat Hacker Laura Kankaala was trained to be ethical but uses malicious techniques to help the average person stay safe.
She said an overheating device or a random green light on the screen could mean someone is watching you.
Other signs include certain emails and phone calls that you might want to get tired of.
Kankaala leads the Finnish white hat hacking collective (as opposed to the criminal black hats) KyberVPK and has appeared in the series where she hacks everything from smart home devices to cars.
“As an ethical hacker, you will know that someone is on your phone because I will tell you and help you take away my access,” she said.
A dot appears on the screen
If you see a green dot on your Android screen or an orange dot on your iPhone, it could be a warning sign that you’ve been hacked or someone has installed a suspicious app on your phone, Kankaala said.
She said these warning dots appear when a device’s microphone or camera is being used, and it could be a warning sign that the phone has malicious software designed to spy on people.
If you see a green dot on your Android screen, it could be a warning sign that you have been hacked or someone has installed a shady app on your phone.
“Malware can record audio from your microphone, read your messages or track your location,” Kankaala said.
“Cybercriminals could use malware like this or even the attacker you know in the form of stalkerware.”
Going through your apps and removing unknown ones can help, or try resetting your phone or running a virus scanning app, Kankaala advises.
On iPhone, you can check which of your apps are using the camera or microphone by going to your phone’s Control Center and looking at the dots icon at the top.
This should show which apps are using your microphone, camera, or location.
The orange dot, which can also be orange, means that your device’s microphone is currently in use.
You can also go to Settings and turn on the “App Privacy Report” to see a running log of which apps have used your sensitive “permissions” and when.
Your phone is getting warm
According to Kankalaa, a phone heating up could be a signal that it has malware installed.
“Whenever persistent location sharing is turned on, your phone is likely to inexplicably drain the battery quickly, and you may feel your phone getting warm,” she continued.
“You may find strange-looking apps that you either don’t remember installing on your phone, or apps that you accidentally downloaded outside of the official app store—for example, someone sends you a text message urging you to download an app.
“Sometimes these apps will try to disguise themselves and change the name of the app to something that resembles phone settings or something else that makes you feel like they might be legitimate. It may also be difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall these apps directly.”
You receive emails from social networking apps
If you start receiving emails from your bank or social media apps asking if you want to change your password, this could be a sign that your credentials have been stolen.
Criminals can do this through phishing attacks, where victims are persuaded to visit a fake website.
It’s critical to act quickly, Kankalaa advised.
“The attacker didn’t necessarily hack your phone—they may have stolen access to your online services, such as your important email or iCloud credentials, or even the social media apps you primarily use through your phone,” she said.
“If someone with criminal intent has stolen your credentials, you will likely notice it when access to your services is blocked after you change your password.”
Your bank is calling you
Hackers don’t need to install tricky apps to attack you on your phone, and often attack you through calls and text messages, Kankalaa warned.
Even if your bank’s numbers seem correct, it could still be a scam.
“One of the easiest ways to target people using cell phones with different types of scams is through text messages and phone calls,” Kankalaa said.
“It is very easy to impersonate the phone numbers of financial institutions or other well-known individuals and try to manipulate you into doing something that is not in your best interests – such as making an instant cash transaction or sharing your credentials with online services.”