Hello! So for a while now there’s someone trying to hack my phone all the time. I’ve had multiple cases over the last few years where a new user was signed into my facebook or gmail account and I needed to change my password multiple times. Also, today my screen started opening random settings WHILE I was using my phone. I needed to restart my phone and turn on airplane mode.
With that being said, I have a few questions and I hope someone could give me a reply:
Is it a good idea to change my android OS, and if yes - my phone is Samsung Galaxy a037g and I haven’t found a compatible custom OS yet
Would it be helpful if instead of changing the OS I just change the launcher? I mean does it matter if I use a different launcher than One UI? Can it help with privacy?
Is there a way to install apps from google play without logging in? I just have no idea what to do. I feel as if this person is somehow using my accounts in order to hack my phone and Im quite bothered.
Is there any antivirus who can ACTUALLY do its job? I installed so many different ones and there’s never anything wrong detected.
I have already done a factory reset a few times and it didn’t seem to work. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I wonder how can someone constantly find my accounts and constantly hack them.
I looked it up and it is a few years old and it looks like it only went from Android 11 to Android 12 (Android 15 will be released this year, that should tell you how old it is). I don’t think it would receive anymore updates, so your phone is most likely very insecure. Samsung does a terrible job at updating their lower end phones.
Most custom Androids are not recommended as they actually weaken the Android security model, making it easier to be compromised. The only recommended ones are GrapheneOS or DivestOS if your phone doesn’t support GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS is only supported on the Google Pixel phones. I’m not sure about DivestOS.
Best thing to do would be to buy a new phone. The only recommended ones are a Google Pixel or iPhone, but they aren’t available in all countries and are more expensive. If you have any computers like Windows or macOS, make sure they are secure too as they are far easier to compromise than mobile phones.
Somewhere in the Settings app you will be able to check for updates and what version your Android is and its patch level.
No. Stick to the Google Play Store as that is the safest way to install apps, and also make sure you have Google Play Protect enabled.
How are you creating those passwords? If you are coming up with them yourself, it would be easy to guess them. You should use a password generator in a password manager like Bitwarden. Or even just get Google to create them. Google should automatically create one when you change your password on a website.
jerm is right, they do suck. Avoid them. Just use Google Play Protect which comes with Android. There is no reason to use a third-party antivirus anymore. They are often terrible for privacy and can be a security risk themselves. This also applies to computers.
Other advice I have would be to disable Bluetooth and Wi-FI when you are not using them. Bluetooth is a privacy and security risk (it adds a huge attack surface to your device and aids in tracking), while Wi-Fi is a privacy issue (your phone’s saved SSIDs would be very unique to your device so it too would aid in tracking).
First of all factory reset your phone immediately, then install only trusted apps from play store. If you think your Google account is compromised, create a new one and use it on your phone instead of the old one.
Assuming someone else is accessing your phone the factory reset alone is not enough:
factory reset your phone again, make sure the latest OS/updates are installed
DO NOT install ANY apps yet
create new passwords for your phone AND your Google account
create new passwords for all other services you use, ideally on your desktop PC (yes, this is a lot of work and sucks but it is necessary)
manually reinstall the apps you really need one by one
this is a good time to weed out a lot of the trash apps that you might have installed
Unless someone is targeting you over a unpatched exploit on your
(old) device you should be good again now.
You should also get a new phone that is receiving OS and security updates.