Well, never fear, after reading our article, you’ll know exactly what to do once your iPhone is hacked.
How Easy Is It To Hack An iPhone?
The hard truth is that any type of phone can be hacked at any point.
There are many reasons why someone would want to get into your phone: access to bank details from your banking app, personal details from your email or Facebook or even photos from your gallery.
No smartphone is impervious to hacking, there are weak points on any phone, and they can be exploited.
But how can you tell that your phone has been hacked? Is it obvious? What are the tell-tale signs that your phone has been hacked into?
How Can I Tell If My Phone Has Been Hacked?
There are a few signs that you might have noticed which could indicate that your phone has been hacked into by a remote source. Check some of them out below:
More Data Is Being Used Than Usual
There are many reasons why you are using more data than usual. If you are streaming videos from websites like YouTube and Netflix, then these will take up a lot of your bandwidth.
However, if you haven’t been doing more of this than usual, but you have still noticed that your data is skyrocketing, then the chances are that you might have been hacked.
You can check how much data you are going through by clicking on the ‘settings’ app on your phone. Then click on ‘connections’ and ‘mobile data usage’.
This should give you an accurate readout of how much data you are using.
If you have noticed that an unusual app is using up more data than the others, then you should uninstall it straight away. Once you have done this, check your data usage once again.
Strange Phone Behavior
If you notice your phone acting strangely repeatedly, then this might be a sign that it is being accessed by a third party.
Underperforming
If you are noticing that your phone is struggling with things that it used to find easy, then this could be another sign that it is being accessed by someone else or that you are being phished for information.
This could be the battery depleting itself very quickly or certain apps taking a very long time to load.
To check your battery life, then you should click on ‘settings’, then ‘battery device and care’ and then ‘view battery details’.
Unsanctioned Credit Card Purchases
Look at your credit card statements and make sure to keep track (see also: How To Turn Off Tracking On iPhone)of all the purchases that you have made.
If you notice payments made to unusual payees, this could be a sign that your iPhone has been compromised.
To avoid this in the future, you’ll need to make sure that you only make credit card payments to verified sources.
If you have noticed that the website you are about to make a payment to has a lot of pop-ups, then we would recommend against handing over your card details.
Text Messages From Random Numbers
If you are noticing that you are receiving strange, nonsensical text messages from unknown numbers, then this could mean that your phone is tracking you and sending out details to other parties.
A lot of the time, these scammers will get a hold of your phone number and send you messages containing exclusive deals from various companies.
You can halt this by once again going into ‘settings’ and seeing what apps have access to your phone messaging service.
If you have noticed anything that does have access to your service, then you can always block it by going through the privacy setting.
What To Do If You Think Your iPhone Has Been Hacked
The first thing to do if you think that malware has been downloaded onto your phone is to go through your apps and see if you can see any that look strange or that you don’t remember downloading.
If you notice any apps that match this criterion, you should delete them immediately. You can do this by going through your ‘app manager’ and deleting any app that you think looks strange.
There is also anti-virus software that you can get on your phone that will offer plenty of protection against viruses that might be downloaded onto your phone in the future.
You can get anti-virus software that will regularly scan your phone for suspicious activity and delete any apps that it thinks might be a threat to your system.
You can also do a complete factory reset on your phone (although you should make sure that you back up all your data first).
You can usually do this through the setting app on your phone. If you cannot find it then just search for ‘factory reset’ or ‘restore factory settings’ on your phone.
Conclusion
Getting your phone hacked is not nice and can be quite traumatic for people.
But if you take the right preventative and reactive measures, then you should be able to purge your phone and prevent any future malware from getting on your device.
We would certainly recommend that you get decent antiviral software for your iPhone, although make sure you are getting it from verified sources.
Hi, I’m Matt Anderson and I have been passionate about cybersecurity for many years. I’ve worked as that IT guy in many offices over the years, and I now work as a Software Development Consultant.
If you are interested in making your online presence, your home, your life and your family’s lives much more secure in the modern age, then my hope is that securityfuse.com has all of the answers you need.
I’ve set up this website as a hub of all things security, including which home cameras to purchase, how to use them, which software is safe, how to learn self defense, and how to make your online accounts secure from hackers. Join me in making your home life and online life worry free.
![How To Detect A Hacker Attack? [Ultimate Guide]](https://securityfuse.com/storage/2023/02/How-To-Detect-A-Hacker-Attack-Ultimate-Guide.jpg "How To Detect A Hacker Attack? [Ultimate Guide]")
