5 ways your smartphone get hacked.

How safe is your smartphone?

Are you a victim of smartphone espionage?

It is a fact that governments, the NSA, private organizations and individuals hack smartphones using malicious backdoors, phone apps, ATM skimming type software and wireless radio wave technology to gain illegal access to the unsuspecting smartphone user.

1. Hackers can take over your smart phone by sending a text message with a photo or video attached. In 2015, over a billion Android phones were affected by this security flaw known as “Stagefright.” According to arstechnica.com a disparaging Qualcomm security-bug, leaves many phones open to attack. The fix is unavailable for most users, and many will probably never get it. “The flaw, which is most severe in Android versions 4.3 and earlier, allows low-privileged apps to access sensitive data that’s supposed to be off-limits, according to a blog published by security firm, Fire Eye, but instead, the data is available by invoking permissions that are already requested by millions of apps available in Google Play.”

2. Unfortunately even with Apple’s strong encryption standards, even an iPhone user’s privacy is still at serious risk and exposure. According to digitaltrends.com the illegal exposure was possible from a security flaw in Signaling System 7 (SS7), a little-knownglobal network that connects all the phone carriers around the world. It’s known as the heart of the phone system. The bad news here is that it affects every phone on a cellular network, whether it’s running iOS, Android, or even Windows. Even if a user turns off location services on their phone, hackers would still be able to see the phone’s location via the network. “The theory is that the SS7 flaw is well known within the government, but it’s a hole that security agencies might not want plugged since it provides access to everyone’s phone.”

3. According to cracked.com, once your phone has been hacked, your cell phone tilt sensor can “sense” what you are typing on your computer. Your phone’s accelerometer can pick up information such as messages, chats and passwords just based on the distance from the keys to the phone and deduce which letters you type.

4. Unsecure Wifi in restaurants, hotels, and airports allows the hackers to view everything you do while connected. On iPhones, a message will warn the user by saying the server cannot be verified.

5. “FREE CHARGING” hackers may use the same technology as ATM Skimming devicesto steal your private information, and data, or install a program on your phone to steal it later.