If Your Mobile Device Was Hacked on January 1st, You May Be Just Finding Out About It Now

Your Mobile Device May Have Already Been Hacked

In our last two posts, we informed you that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month while discussing five cyber threats to your mobile device and we discussed some of the recent malware attacks that Android users – the largest group of worldwide mobile device users by far – that you need to know.

Understanding all that is important, but here’s something that may be even more important.  Your Android mobile device may have already been hacked and you may not even realize it.  And it may have been hacked since nearly the beginning of the year – or even longer!

Average Time to Detect and Contain a Data Breach

According to the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report issued by IBM (available for download here), the average time to detect and contain a data breach is 280 days! That’s the average, so it can take even longer than that.

Putting that into perspective, the 280th day of 2021 was October 7th. So, if you suffered a data breach on your Android device (or any device for that matter) on January 1, the average time to detecting and containing that breach would have been last week! Keep in mind that malware can start from a device and then permeate through an organization to other devices and systems, so the quicker you identify that a device has been hacked, the more likely you’ll be able to contain the spread of any potential data breach resulting from it.

Signs That Your Mobile Device MAY HAVE Been Hacked

There are a few signs you can look for that MAY signal that your mobile device has been hacked, including:

• Dramatic decrease in battery life: If your battery life is draining quickly, this could be a sign of malware. However, there are several other potential causes for battery drain (especially on older devices), so malware infection is not the only potential cause.
• Performance issues: If your mobile device is exhibiting performance issues (e.g., apps crashing, phone freezing or responding slowly), that could also be a sign of malware, but as is the case with battery life, there are other potential causes of these issues as well.
• High data usage: If your data usage is higher than expected, this can be another potential sign of background malware apps sending and receiving information, but there are instances where legitimate apps are doing the same thing, so, again, this indicator doesn’t guarantee the presence of malware.

These are all potential signs of the presence of malware on your Android device, but they’re not a guarantee.  So, how do you know when you’ve been hacked?  Better yet, how do you know if your more vulnerable to attack than it should be?

Mobile Compromise Assessment

Forensic Discovery is offering a new Mobile Compromise Assessment service that can help you identify the answers to those questions – and more. If you have an Android mobile device (8.0+), you can get answers to questions including:

• Whether your mobile device has been hacked.
• Whether your current device setting are leaving you exposed to data theft.
• Whether cybercriminals are eavesdropping on your network traffic.

And the best part is that you don’t have to give up the device to do so.  We can perform the assessment remotely and provide actionable recommendations to remove the threat or reduce any critical risk exposures.

Conclusion

Over the past three posts, we’ve discussed how mobile devices are more likely to be hacked than ever, how Android is the most used mobile OS worldwide by far and how you may already have been hacked and not even realize it.  The theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month is “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.”  Sounds like great advice to us!

For more information about Forensic Discovery’s Mobile Compromise Assessment services, click here.