With phones now central to day-to-day life, falling victim to phone hacking can have significant effects. Access to apps and accounts can be blocked, your work and personal contacts scammed and your bank accounts emptied of cash. Phone hacking can also lead toon the victim, with people often blaming themselves, and reporting increased anxiety, depression and feelings of helplessness and lack of trust.
If you've caught things early, it may be possible to recover quickly and with little ill effect by following a few simple steps:Change all passwords immediately to new, strong onesIf all else fails, restore your phone to its factory settings These passwords should be strong — in other words, reasonably long, unique and hard to guess. Don't even think about using your pet's name or your child's date of birth. Changing passwords may or may not be straightforward, depending on exactly what the hackers have been able to access and change, and it may be necessary to contact these organizations directly to explain the situation and ask them for help.