Phone Hacking and its Preventions

The term mobile hacking means to trap the calls or messages of any active mobile phone without permission of the owner of that phone. The term came to prominence during the News International phone hacking scandals and other mishaps which were taking place cause of phone hacking.

There are further two types of hacking

1. Voicemail hacking
2. Data hacking

Voicemail hacking means that somebody remotely listening to your phone’s voicemail messages while data hacking mean that somebody is keeping an eye or stealing information stored on your phone, such as phone numbers, bank account details and emails.

Celebrities have been the main targets for the mobile phone hacks because that apparently sells newspapers but fraudsters will also target us ‘normal’ people to obtain our sensitive data so as they can commit fraud or to sell the data on or even can blackmail you.

Preventions:

Voicemail hacking: It normally takes place through the system that allows you to listen to your messages when you don’t have your mobile with you or you’re away from home. This is normally through a land line number (or your own land line number if its a home based answer phone system) and then you enter a security pin to listen to your messages however most people never change their pin from the default which is normally 1234 or 0000. If you don’t change this pin code then a phone hacker could potentially listen to your voicemails by entering one of the default pins. Assuming your new pin is four digits that allows up to 10,000 possible combinations for a hacker to guess.

Data hacking:

To minimize the risk of your mobile data falling into the wrong hands you could try the following:

• Do not store your personal data in your mobile like your account number,pins codes, passwords etc.
• Do not use public Wi-Fi as it is not much secured.
• Do not log in your personal accounts from public net cafés. They are not safe.
• When you’re not using Bluetooth always turn it off as hackers could use the wireless connection to gain remote access to your phone.
• Keep removing your internet browsing history from your mobile phone so that hacker will not be able to reach your browsed data.
• Some phones save user names and passwords automatically to help you log-in faster next time, but this could also help a hacker access your personal data. Check your phone’s “Settings” menu to see if it is automatically storing information.