You are sure that your girlfriend doesn’t know about your new intrigue? You believe your competitor doesn’t suspect about your plans for the future business meeting ? Well, maybe you are too optimistic. If you still believe that your messages in Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, etc. are safe and protected, after reading this article you will be totally disappointed.
In total, billions of people use such popular communication apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Blackberry Messenger. Not everyone wonders, whether someone could read or wiretap his or her messages, because there’s nothing interesting in most of our texts.
However, sometimes it’s really important to keep a secret. And here is the bitter truth: there is no way you can protect your messages, if you use popular services.
Programs That Can “Read” Your Messages
The Internet offers multiple options how one can hack the mentioned above apps. Here are just a few programs that would easily reach your secrets and release them to the public domain.
MSpy is a software for mobiles and computers that, when installed on your device, tracks all your calls, messages, emails, Internet pages, GPS location, etc. MSPY is positioned as a means of parental control or monitoring a company-owned devices used by employees. It means that the program is absolutely legal, since it requires a physical access to the device and, therefore, theoretically, the owner is aware of this program on his phone.
One more option is HelloSpy, which also tracks Viber chats, WhatsApp messages, calls and emails, etc. To install the program, you have to receive the target phone in your hands as well, at least once, all settings can be then adjusted remotely. The program is said to be undetectable: the weight of data uploaded to the server goes unnoticed for the target phone bills. In addition, the consumption of the battery power is very low and the target phone works its usual time. So there is no way you can detect a spy on your phone.
The same principle of work has one more tracker Copy9. It must be installed on the device directly, same as other programs, and then it works silently, tracking all your messengers, calls, and locations.
And the most famous tracking program is FlexiSpy, which is a leader in the professional monitoring software. Except all the mentioned above features, it can additionally “get” the passwords contained in any Android, iPhone or iPad. Generally, FlexiSpy has more than 150 features, compatible with Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia Symbian.
…And You Won’t Even Notice
You may wonder how you would know whether there is a spy on your phone. In most cases, you have no chances to find it out. First versions of such programs could have been tracked: your phone started to “behave” unusually. A few years ago, if you noticed one of the following problems, you could suspect a spy:
– additional active processes on your device;
– high consumption of the phone battery power;
– the weight of uploaded data to the server and therefore higher phone bills;
– the usage of memory resource on your phone;
– high CPU utilization problem.
However, right now all these “leaks” of spy programs are fixed, and most of them are undetectable by an ordinary user.
Lots of Spying Features
In order to be substantive, here is a list of main features of some of the programs listed above:
– listens and records calls and phone surroundings;
– reads SMS and MMS, and emails, sends fake messages, deletes messages containing keywords;
– spies on applications and emails passwords;
– tracks location;
– spies on video, audio, image files;
– controls phone remotely: can take a photo, restart a device, check battery status, etc.;
– spies on viewed web pages and bookmarks;
– reads calendar, address book, notes, installed programs, etc.;
– alerts about calling a specific phone number, change of SIM card;
– spies secretly: hides Jailbreak, SuperSu, hides from task manager.
Popular Messengers That Can Be Spied On
In addition to all mentioned above, “high-quality” spy track all activity in the following popular messengers:
- Facebook, Facebook Messenger
- Viber
- Skype
- Line
- iMessage
- BBM, Blackberry PIN
- Telegram
- Yahoo Messenger
- Snapchat
- Hangouts
- KIK
- Tinder
And this list is updated regularly – as soon as some messenger becomes popular, the efforts are made to add “spying support”.
It Seems to Be Legal
What is even more interesting, all the mentioned above programs are legal. They require a direct access to the target phone, so it is implied that the owner knows and agrees on being “spied”. These are the cases of parental control upon children of minority age, corporate policy, when keeping a pledge of secrecy is obligatory, and some other similar cases. However, these spy programs wouldn’t have to be “undetectable”, if everything is so unambiguous, right? No one would check for what purpose you buy the program and how you use it afterwards.
Physical Access Is Not Required If You Have Enough Technical Power
As was mentioned above, all these spy programs require physical installation to the target phone, only afterwards they work remotely. But will you be totally protected, if you watch your phone attentively and don’t let anybody touch it? Sad to say, but no.
Yes, your spouse, colleague, or your boss needs your phone in his/her hands to install a spying program. However, the government doesn’t need such complications. Intelligence agencies work on a much higher level, they listen and wiretap all popular messengers, receiving access to your conversations from the messengers’ owners directly. Or by hacking these apps on the daily basis.
You are wondering why the government needs to listen to your talks? Well, popular communication apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, etc., have billion of users in total. Do you really believe that governments will let so many people stay uncontrolled? There are multiple options how they can wiretap messengers: getting codes to the encrypted information from owners, hacking the apps by their own separate units that work for this purpose, or by hiring a third party to do the job for them. If you are interested in this information, here is the article on the topic: Big Brother Is Watching You.
By the way, there was a great case with an Italian-based cyberfirm Hacking Team. This firm offers legal offensive security services, using malware and vulnerabilities to gain access to the target network. Sorry for the tautology, but Hacking Team was hacked. 400GB of documents were widely publicized and showed that the firm was working with numerous repressive governments, among their clients were Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Bahrain, and others.
In addition, in some countries you buy an already “hacked” phone, and you never know that the “big brother” is watching you instantly and constantly.
Conclusion
Your girlfriend is watching you, your boss is watching you, and of course, the government is watching you.
So what can be advised to you?
Don’t use popular messengers, if you care about security, only the lazy wouldn’t learn to spy on them. And don’t leave your phone untended, don’t give it to those you don’t trust fully.
But still, those who need it badly, will get you anyway, unless you are using a really secure communication solution.
References:
http://www.flexispy.com/en/mobile-and-cell-phone-spy-features.htm
https://www.mspy.com/viber.html
http://hellospy.com/track-viber-chats.aspx?lang=en-US