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What is spyware and how to know if there is one on the cell phone

This type of malware seeks to steal information by accessing the user’s cell phone without them noticing. (Freepik)

Talking about cybersecurity implies understanding certain terms that help to understand threat levels and how to act against them; one of the most relevant ispyware, a type of recurring attack that criminals use to steal information.

The path that they usually choose to reach cell phones is through malicious applications or links from which a program is installed that has access to the phone’s data, such as contacts, photos, calls, or messages.

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Spyware Guide

This term means spyware, which means in a simple way, a hidden way of obtaining information; For this reason, its content is malicious and operates without the consent of the user.

The arrival of the program on the cell phone occurs through deception, either because it is hidden in software that is not dangerous or because it is installed promising other content or service.

This type of malware seeks to steal information by accessing the user's cell phone without them noticing.  (Freepik)
This type of malware seeks to steal information by accessing the user’s cell phone without them noticing. (Freepik)

Additionally, there are three types of spyware according to their level of risk and objective:

-Keyloggers: it records the user’s keystrokes on their device and can steal passwords.

-Adware: It constantly generates publicity. In addition to being annoying, it seeks the user to enter and provide personal information on these promoted sites.

– Infostealers: collects and sends information that is stored on the device, mostly searches for multimedia content, search history, passwords and email accounts.

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How to know if a cell phone has spyware

Being a software that hides from the system, detecting them can be a complicated task, so you have to resort to different signals that the mobile gives when it is being attacked:

– When spyware is installed on the cell phone, it causes the device’s temperature to rise, since it requires more work from the internal components. So, if the phone gets hot for no reason and that happens after downloading an application or accessing a page, it will be important to do a security check.

– Poor performance is another important sign. This type of malicious software affects the normal operation of the computer, making it slow or causing many consecutive errors, for example, applications crashing or the battery draining faster.

This type of malware seeks to steal information by accessing the user's cell phone without them noticing.  (Pexels)
This type of malware seeks to steal information by accessing the user’s cell phone without them noticing. (Pexels)

– If many pop-up windows open when accessing the internet or launching applications, it is because there is a background attack that tries to display advertising and obtain information.

– Spyware is capable of taking control of certain functions such as mail and messages. If a contact informs us that we are sending them fake links or spam, there is surely a malicious software behind it all.

– Unauthorized purchases are usually a recurring sign, because criminals manage to obtain card and bank account numbers to make transactions without the user’s knowledge.

It may interest you: How to know the data that an application that I downloaded to my cell phone has access to

Spam emails to the inbox

Now that we are talking about cybersecurity, it is important that users of Outlook Know that in recent days there was a failure in the platform that caused spam emails not to be sent to that folder, but rather to the main tray.

Through Twitter and Reddit people were sharing this situation that was presented in several accounts of United States, Europe and some of Latin America. Although Microsoft Make sure it’s already resolved.

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However, since BleepingComputer assure that “some reports have seen a lot of spam emails in the inbox since November 2021”, so it would not be a new situation on the platform.

Much of the email that is getting through the spam filter is deceptive messages that promote contests and fake offers, or contain fraudulent links that seek to steal information from users.

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