Security
Is Your Phone Hacked? How To Find Out & Protect Yourself
Unless you’re dealing with an extremely sophisticated piece of malware, there are often obvious clues that your smartphone is under attack, or already compromised by hackers or viruses.
Is your phone hacked? These days, most people are pretty switched on when it comes to the dangers of computer viruses and hacked PCs. We’ve all become pretty paranoid about clicking weird email links and downloading random files from dubious websites. Yet, for all of the effort we put into keeping our PCs safe from malware and hackers, our smartphones often get neglected when it comes to cybersecurity.
Sure, the average iPhone or Android device is leagues ahead of an outdated version of Windows when it comes to security, but if you think that your phone is impervious to infiltration by criminals and scammers, think again.
In this guide, we’ll explain how your phone can be targeted by cybercriminals, show you some of the telltale signs that your device has been compromised, and finally, give you some vital tips to rescue your phone and data from the clutches of the hackers.
How To Tell If Your Phone Has Been Hacked
Unless you’re dealing with an extremely sophisticated piece of malware, there are often obvious clues that your smartphone is under attack, or already compromised by hackers or viruses. Here are some of the most prevalent side effects of a hacked smartphone:
The Battery Drains Extremely Quickly
All phone batteries degrade over time, resulting in a device that won’t hold a charge for as long as it used to. However, in the case of a hacked smartphone, the power can sometimes drain extremely rapidly for no apparent reason.
“Phone spyware stays active all the time, so it quickly saps power and drains the battery, so this could be a sign that your cell phone has been compromised” – Tim Lynch, PhD, Psychsoftpc.com.
Your Data Use Has Skyrocketed
A really obvious sign that your phone has been hacked or contains a malware app is a huge spike in data usage: Typically, a hacked phone will upload large chunks of information, which will show up in your data usage when away from your home WiFi network. Downloading an app like “Data Usage” can help you to monitor for any irregular activity outside of your normal online activities.
The Phone Is Really Hot
Going hand-in-hand with a quickly draining battery and large spikes in data use, a super hot phone can be a sign that you’re device is compromised. If you regularly find that your phone’s exterior case is hot to the touch, even when idle, you may have a hacked handset.
Overall Performance Is Sluggish
If you regularly experience crashes, slow performance or a delay when making calls or sending texts even after a restart, there’s a chance that your phone has been hijacked.
The Phone Has Dialed/Texted Numbers Without Your Input
Here’s a scary scenario: You’re informed by some of your contacts that you’ve bombarded them with weird text messages or automated phone calls, but you have no knowledge of anything untoward ever happening. If you ever experience this kind of behavior from your phone, it’s a sure bet that you’ve been hacked.
You’re Experiencing Lots Of Pop-Ups & Random App Installs
Remember those PC viruses that slowly strangled your machine with pop-ups and installed weird spam applications that you didn’t authorize? Well this kind of hack is starting gain traction in the smartphone world now too.
Your Gmail Or iCloud Accounts Are Acting Strangely
Services like iCloud and Gmail are rich targets for hackers, as they contain a lot of sensitive information that could be exploited for theft or extortion. Typical signs that your main accounts have been hacked include password reset notifications that you didn’t make, as well as security checks and verification emails telling you that you’ve added a new device.
So How Did Your Smartphone Get Hacked?
Now that you can spot a few of the signs that indicate your phone is compromised, you’re probably wondering how a phone hack could happen in the first place? Surely modern smartphones aren’t that easy to sabotage?
The reality is that hacking a modern phone is virtually impossible without an error of judgement from the device’s owner. Here are some common mistakes that could leave you vulnerable to foul play:
Downloading Malware App
As a general rule, it’s much easier to inadvertently download a dubious app on the Google Play Store than on Apple’s App Store, as the former is less likely to vet their apps quite as vigorously. Android devices also tend to be owned by people who prefer to customize their phone’s operating system, and this can lead to downloads from places outside of the official marketplace.
Opening A Dubious Link
From fake bank or credit card emails to files sent to you from a friend’s already compromised device or app, clicking the links contained inside of “Phishing” emails is a surefire way to get yourself into trouble.
Using Compromised Passwords
Reusing passwords is a huge error, and one of the most simple ways for hackers to gain access to your Google or iCloud accounts. Once a thief gains access to your main accounts, it’s extremely difficult to keep in control of the situation, leading to devastating results.
Charging Your Device At A Public USB Point
If you’re low on power when out and about in public, try to resist the urge to charge your device using a public USB socket. Hackers have been known to hide devices in these chargers, allowing them to control your device with the intention of adding secret apps and malware via the USB input, including key loggers that can monitor everything you type into your apps.
If you do need to top up your phone in public, always use your own USB charger to ensure you’re not connected to anything malicious.
Using Free WiFi
Free WiFi is super convenient and avoids draining your phone’s data plan. However, unless you use a VPN (virtual private network) to connect to the free WiFi in coffee shops and airports, there’s a chance that your data could be intercepted as it bounces back and forth between your device and the wireless base station.
What To Do If Your Phone Gets Hacked
If you have a suspicion that your smartphone has been hacked, try not to panic. Phone hacks can be serious, but if you act immediately to limit the damage, you should be able to recover from the attack:
Change All Of Your Passwords Immediately
Even if your device hasn’t been hacked, changing your passwords now and then can help to give you peace of mind that your data is safe. Make sure all of your passwords are unique, and make them hard to crack. If the option is available, always use two factor authentication, especially on mission-critical services like your Google account or iCloud.
If you’re having trouble remembering your passwords, use a decent password manager like Myki, 1Password, Bitwarden or LastPass.
Monitor Your Financial Accounts
Once you have your major passwords secure, go through all of your financial services, such as bank accounts and credit cards, checking for any out of the ordinary purchases or charges. If you see anything suspicious, immediately contact your bank or card provider, and they will begin the process of reimbursing you for your losses and investigating the fraud.
Use Google Play Protect
Apple users won’t typically need to worry about compromised apps, but for Android users suspicious of a data breach via a downloaded app, it’s good practice to use Google Play Protect to scan for (and remove) malware on your phone.
To check your device, go to the Google Play Store app, click the three-line icon in the top-left left corner of your screen. Next, tap Google Play Protect, then hit the scan button.
Factory Reset Your Phone
If your phone does have malware or a virus, it’s usually best practice to bite the bullet and wipe the device clean with a factory reset. Doing this will erase all the data on the phone, so it’s vital that you have everything backed up somewhere in the cloud so that you can quickly get back up and running with minimal losses.
Learn How To Protect Yourself From Hackers & Malware
Many smartphone users still aren’t sufficiently clued up to spot a phishing scam or dubious app before it’s too late. With data theft and hacking continually on the rise, it’s imperative that you wise up, toughen your privacy settings and passwords, and learn as much as you can about data theft and online security.
Do some research, stay safe, and never get your phone hacked again with these simple tips!
Security
Can LLMs Ever Be Completely Safe From Prompt Injection?
Explore the complexities of prompt injection in large language models. Discover whether complete safety from this vulnerability is achievable in AI systems.
The recent introduction of advanced large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini has made it possible to have natural, flowing, and dynamic conversations with AI tools, as opposed to the predetermined responses we received in the past.
These natural interactions are powered by the natural language processing (NLP) capabilities of these tools. Without NLP, LLM models would not be able to respond as dynamically and naturally as they do now.
As essential as NLP is to the functioning of an LLM, it has its weaknesses. NLP capabilities can themselves be weaponized to make an LLM susceptible to manipulation if the threat actor knows what prompts to use.
Exploiting The Core Attributes Of An LLM
LLMs can be tricked into bypassing their content filters using either simple or meticulously crafted prompts, depending on the complexity of the model, to say something inappropriate or offensive, or in particularly extreme cases, even reveal potentially sensitive data that was used to train them. This is known as prompt injection. LLMs are, at their core, designed to be helpful and respond to prompts as effectively as possible. Malicious actors carrying out prompt injection attacks seek to exploit the design of these models by disguising malicious requests as benign inputs.
You may have even come across real-world examples of prompt injection on, for example, social media. Think back to the infamous Remotelli.io bot on X (formerly known as Twitter), where users managed to trick the bot into saying outlandish things on social media using embarrassingly simple prompts. This was back in 2022, shortly after ChatGPT’s public release. Thankfully, this kind of simple, generic, and obviously malicious prompt injection no longer works with newer versions of ChatGPT.
But what about prompts that cleverly disguise their malicious intent? The DAN or Do Anything Now prompt was a popular jailbreak that used an incredibly convoluted and devious prompt. It tricked ChatGPT into assuming an alternate persona capable of providing controversial and even offensive responses, ignoring the safeguards put in place by OpenAI specifically to avoid such scenarios. OpenAI was quick to respond, and the DAN jailbreak no longer works. But this didn’t stop netizens from trying variations of this prompt. Several newer versions of the prompt have been created, with DAN 15 being the latest version we found on Reddit. However, this version has also since been addressed by OpenAI.
Despite OpenAI updating GPT-4’s response generation to make it more resistant to jailbreaks such as DAN, it’s still not 100% bulletproof. For example, this prompt that we found on Reddit can trick ChatGPT into providing instructions on how to create TNT. Yes, there’s an entire Reddit community dedicated to jailbreaking ChatGPT.
There’s no denying OpenAI has accomplished an admirable job combating prompt injection. The GPT model has gone from falling for simple prompts, like in the case of the Remotelli.io bot, to now flat-out refusing requests that force it to go against its safeguards, for the most part.
Strengthening Your LLM
While great strides have been made to combat prompt injection in the last two years, there is currently no universal solution to this risk. Some malicious inputs are incredibly well-designed and specific, like the prompt from Reddit we’ve linked above. To combat these inputs, AI providers should focus on adversarial training and fine-tuning for their LLMs.
Fine-tuning involves training an ML model for a specific task, which in this case, is to build resistance to increasingly complicated and ultra-specific prompts. Developers of these models can use well-known existing malicious prompts to train them to ignore or refuse such requests.
This approach should also be used in tandem with adversarial testing. This is when the developers of the model test it rigorously with increasingly complicated malicious inputs so it can learn to completely refuse any prompt that asks the model to go against its safeguards, regardless of the scenario.
Can LLMs Ever Truly Be Safe From Prompt Injection?
The unfortunate truth is that there is no foolproof way to guarantee that LLMs are completely resistant to prompt injection. This kind of exploit is designed to exploit the NLP capabilities that are central to the functioning of these models. And when it comes to combating these vulnerabilities, it is important for developers to also strike a balance between the quality of responses and the anti-prompt injection measures because too many restrictions can hinder the model’s response capabilities.
Securing an LLM against prompt injection is a continuous process. Developers need to be vigilant so they can act as soon as a new malicious prompt has been created. Remember, there are entire communities dedicated to combating deceptive prompts. Even though there’s no way to train an LLM to be completely resistant to prompt injection, at least, not yet, vigilance and continuous action can strengthen these models, enabling you to unlock their full potential.
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