Cyber attacks are quickly becoming one of the most common modern-day crimes, and as more aspects of our lives continue to become digitized, hacking will only become more prevalent. It is estimated a staggering 30,000 cyber attacks occur each day across the world. The threat of a cyber attack is seemingly quite high for businesses, with over 60% of businesses surveyed having experienced a cyber-attack of some variety.
Hackers often use password and code-cracking software, automatically scanning a victim's social media or online presence for interests, likes, and basic information. Algorithms then test different password combinations based on this information, so the hacker barely has to lift a finger. Whilst there is a growing awareness around increasing our personal online security, can a GPS tracker be hacked? We often use GPS trackers to keep our most valuable possessions and loved ones safe, so are they easy to hack like most other technology? As GPS trackers are quite an investment, it is vital customers know they are receiving a device with a strong defence against hacking and data protection.
GPS trackers are significantly less vulnerable to hacking than, for example, smartphones or laptops. As GPS trackers' sole function is to process information emitted from GPS satellites, there is no outbound signal to be hacked, no phone call which can be infiltrated, or IP address that can be followed. On the other hand, our phones and laptops contain so much more information, account details, addresses, etc, which makes them great targets for hacking. More so, GPS trackers do not connect to wifi, cellular data, or any external body that would allow a hacker to trace it. This makes the devices very safe from the possibility of being hacked.
Not only are trackers very hard to hack, but they also are very undesirable to hack. GPS trackers cannot store any personal data, bank details, images, or messages, making them pointless targets. Nothing can be obtained from the device aside from location data. More so as, unlike with a smartphone, you cannot see online who the GPS tracker is registered to; no one would know who or what was being tracked; thus, the location data is meaningless. The great thing about GPS trackers is that they track belongings but hold no user information, which attaches a person to the data. This makes GPS tracking devices excellent for adding extra security to our possessions and loved ones.