Here is a quote from the 60 Minutes web site: “In today’s world, there’s really only two types of companies or two types of people which are those who have been hacked and realize it and those who have been hacked and haven’t.”
That’s what mobile security expert John Hering tells 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi about the danger of cellphone hacking on last week’s broadcast. The broadcast in question occurred on April 17, 2016 and was an eye opener for me!
Rather than try to recap everything that was mentioned on the program, take a few minutes to watch the video replay of the phone hacking segment: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/hacking-your-phone/ it’s only 13 minutes long.
Towards the end of the show they talked about an app that could be used to check your phone to see if it has been hacked, so I got right on that and installed it on both my phone and my wife’s phone. Happily, both phones are intact and haven’t been hacked…yet!
The app is called Lookout and can be found here for Android phones: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookout and here for iPhone users: https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id434893913?mt=8
Essentially, the app scans through your phone looking for any signs of a malicious app having been installed. It also makes sure that your phone’s system is current and factory standard. In other words the app makes sure that the phone’s operating system hasn’t been modified.
Lookout also helps you locate a missing device, and will play a screaming sound on the phone on demand and will allow you to contact the person who found the device and send them a custom message.
Given that Android phones are susceptible to viruses and malware, Lookout will also scan the phone for any instances of those problems. There are a few other differences between the iPhone and Android versions due to the differences in the phones themselves, but no matter, this is an app that you should get and install now. And yes, it is free for the basic version. A “Pro” version is available with additional features.
The 60 minutes producer said at the end of the show that it wasn’t their intention to scare people because the average user really had nothing to fear, but what is an average user? For those of us who would suffer great harm to our businesses if we got our phones hacked, I strongly suggest that you take action right now, and install the app. After all, I don’t think we are average users!
