Today, the methods of how to protect the phone from wiretapping are an important issue not only for those involved in public activities, politics or business, but also for the average person, because no one would like outsiders to get his personal information . There is an opinion that if you use not ordinary GSM-communication, but some Internet program for it, for example Skype, then it is impossible to “catch” a person. This statement is erroneous. Firstly, all such programs are vulnerable to hacking, and secondly, at the request of special services, development companies can share records of your conversations. It is worth noting that a smartphone, unlike a regular “stupid" mobile phone, is much more vulnerable. In addition to voice communication, such a communicator is used to store various files, photos, correspondence and many other personal data.
How to find a "trap" and protect the phone
There is no universal way to detect wiretapping, but there are basic signs by which it can be detected:
1. If in standby mode the phone heats up, and at that time any program is running, then there is a possibility that this application is listening on your phone.
2. Your device began to discharge too quickly, but at the same time it is quite new.
3. The Internet speed of your smartphone has noticeably decreased for no reason.
4. If the communicator began to repeat or phonetically.
5. For smartphones, there are many applications that can detect listening and protect a mobile phone.
Ways to get information
Three methods of listening to subscribers are used: active, passive, and by installing malicious software. The second requires huge amounts of money: this is equipment, the price tag of which starts from a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and trained personnel. The wiretap radius in this case is about 500 meters. This equipment allows you to track GSM-calls in real time. For the active method, mobile complexes are needed, which cost from several tens of thousands of dollars. As in the first case, the use of this technique requires qualified personnel. This complex becomes a kind of
base communication
station , thereby replacing the nearest operator tower. If you are not the owner of a
large business, politician or
public figure, then these two methods are unlikely to be used against you. But the third, malware, can well be used for ordinary people, whose secrets are not so expensive. With the help of viruses, fraudsters can transmit information from your phone, remove
the encryption algorithm and commit many other “dirty tricks”.
How to protect your phone from special services
Although it is safer to use Internet programs as information transfer than GSM-communication, special services may well gain access to them. Services such as Facebook, Viber, Watsapp, VKontakte, at the request of authorities, in order to fight terrorism and money laundering, can provide them with records of your conversations and correspondence. Alas, we know that special services are not always honest people, so we recommend that you do not transmit sensitive information through such services. For such cases, there are special projects on the Internet for safe communication, for example, VFEmail, Bitmessage, ChatSecure and many others. Next, we’ll look at how to protect your phone from spyware viruses. The probability that you will be monitored not by special services, but by special programs developed by cybercriminals is much higher. These applications can collect all the information on your phone in order to sell it later. In order to protect your phone from wiretapping, try not to download dubious applications for your gadget. It is not rare that close people (wife, friend, colleague) themselves hire a hacker for any purpose to listen to you. If they have access to your phone, then they themselves can drop the desired file onto it, after which a total tracking will be established above the communicator. Advice on this case is commonplace - be vigilant with loved ones and set passwords, do not share your device with anyone.
How to protect your phone from theft: all the details
Try to keep in mind where your device is located. In addition, to protect the phone, never lose sight of it, carry it in a safe place, and try to get it out in crowded places as little as possible. If you didn’t notice and the device is still stolen, as soon as you discover the loss - change the password on all accounts that you accessed through this device, contact the
law enforcement authorities.Prevent all programs from accepting files themselves
In many cases, the security of the mobile device is up to you. Some programs have automatic permission to accept all files sent to you without a request, in the settings change this parameter to protect the phone, otherwise the attackers can easily access your calls, messages, photos, files.
To summarize
All these methods to protect your phone from listening and information leakage do not give a 100% guarantee, but minimize the likelihood of such a situation. If the information is really especially confidential, then think and play it safe 100 times before transmitting it using your device. That's all the information we wanted to share in this material.