suzanne3382

Q: Can the iPhone5 be hacked remotely by a hacker?

I work for a technology company and one of our employees shared an incident about her iPhone5 being hacked remotely. The hacker gained access to her device overnight while her phone was unlocked. The hacker watched her baby monitor video feed from the baby monitoring app  (including taking pictures and video from the device), posted about the baby to her FB account, browsed on Safari, including some searches of French books on amazon and Scott Trading sites. When I spoke with the mobile device team, they were not familiar with any iOS security gaps that would allow a hacker to remotely gain control of an iPhone, however, the activities on her device suggest that this is possible.

 

I found some articles from 2009 regarding a SMS virus that allowed hackers to gain remote access to a device, however, our mobile device team is certain that this gap would be closed by now.

 

Is anyone familiar with an existing security gap on the iPhone5? What would you recommend would be the next action for her? She is intending to delete her icloud account, change all her passwords and wipe her device.

iPhone 5, iOS 6.1.1

Posted on Mar 19, 2013 1:23 PM

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Q: Can the iPhone5 be hacked remotely by a hacker?

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  • by Lexiepex,Helpful

    Lexiepex Lexiepex May 26, 2014 5:36 AM in response to eborz
    Level 6 (10,477 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 26, 2014 5:36 AM in response to eborz

    see if there are apps on your computer that you did not install yourself, the most obvious are Teamviewer and Logmein, but there are more such apps. When they are running these boys can enter your mac at all time. Look in SystemPreferences->Users&Groups->LoginItems what is started at startup (and thus running always): begin with removing everything listed in the LoginItems (with the minus sign underneath): this will not uninstall anything, but you have to start these apps manually when you need them (with is better always).

  • by Ohald,Helpful

    Ohald Ohald May 26, 2014 8:00 AM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 26, 2014 8:00 AM in response to suzanne3382

    My girlfriend just got a black square message (not a normal SMS but white writing on a black background that opened when she unlocked her phone, then disappeared) saying your phone has just been hacked by olgie. Then the find my phone app kicked in giving out our address, even though she didn't have that app installed. Obviously pretty disconcerting. Not sure where to go from here as there is so little info I can find... Any advice would be appreciated.

  • by talhatariq01,

    talhatariq01 talhatariq01 Jun 15, 2014 12:14 AM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 15, 2014 12:14 AM in response to suzanne3382

    i was just having a similar problem, i was on a chatting website through which you could chat with random people and all of a sudden i realize that i have no control over my phone someone been operating it and I had no idea who it was, it started going through my messages and when I constantly tried delete that app called "skout" it didnt let me even after I turned off my wifi my 3G cellular date and turned on my airplane and what not. i even tunned it on and off over and over again but who it was i couldnt get rid off!! so i left my phone alone for half an hour and waited and half an hour later I quickly switched on my phone and finally managed to delete the "SKOUT" app and it stopped. Do all of you, the one who got hacked have the app called " SKOUT" or any other chatting or dating apps, because from my understanding those could be a problem!! so watch out

  • by brandyfrommooresville,

    brandyfrommooresville brandyfrommooresville Jun 30, 2014 8:07 PM in response to talhatariq01
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 30, 2014 8:07 PM in response to talhatariq01

    It's happened to me too!  I could hear my phone typing away by its self on the table while we were eating. Picked it up and it was on some strange blog with pics of some guy. I DONT BLOG!  This is the first thing I have ever posted.  I don't even do Facebook!!!  Whoever it is fought with me not to do a reboot but amazingly  still had control after the reboot because they were able to type "ewok" as my user Id as i was in the process of a rest then later go to my banking website and type ok into the user ID. I'm spooked!  Scary to think someone could do this. It is now off with the sims card removed.  does anyone else think this my be linked to he phone networks?  No one is complaining about iPads and I think it was pretty telling that they could control my phone before it was totally reset.

  • by userremoved,

    userremoved userremoved Nov 20, 2014 11:04 PM in response to brandyfrommooresville
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 11:04 PM in response to brandyfrommooresville

    Im pretty sure my ex and her son put something  on my iPhone as it was sending out text messages to "imp" something or another. I formatted the iPhone and restored it as a new phone but something still doesn't seem right with the phone. I have a white 4s that's jail broke and I load it with the backups from the 5 that's not j/b. Now I can access every file that's on that phone to see if it's been tampered with. Also I installed a legitimate program on my Mac called  Xcode which is prime rely used by people who build apps. once you open up the program you plug your phone in and it monitors everything that's going on with your phone. The Console screen shows every error/message the iPhone is dealing with at that particular time.

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Jul 14, 2014 12:27 AM in response to userremoved
    Level 6 (10,477 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 14, 2014 12:27 AM in response to userremoved

    Well, we can not discuss the jailbroken phone as is clearly stated in the Forum Terms Of Use. You must find your help elsewhere.

    PS: if you did the jailbreak with a Mac, your Mac is compromised too.

  • by LondonFirefly,

    LondonFirefly LondonFirefly Aug 18, 2014 8:04 AM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 18, 2014 8:04 AM in response to suzanne3382

    Reading the comments on here, the general consensus seems to be that unless someone installs something on your iPhone, it can't be spied on.  Out of interest (well, paranoia really), I went to a spy shop in London and asked them this very question: can someone spy on my iPhone without having physical access to it and their answer was 'if you give me your phone number now, I could start spying on your iPhone as early as later on today'.  I mentioned to him the tell-tale signs I'd read online about weird phone behaviour if it is being spied on, he said that what they could do was completely stealthy and I'd never know.

     

    If that's not food for thought, I don't know what is.  He didn't elaborate as it's a service they sell.  (I of course didn't give him my phone number!)

     

    Since then, I've always had a seriously uneasy feeling about my phone...

     

    So I'm afraid I'm inclined to believe that if someone wants to spy on your phone, they don't need physical access to it.  There have been enough stories in the main stream news about just this, so I'm really surprised that so many commenters seem to think it's all paranoia and tin foil hat stuff. 

  • by racepace,

    racepace racepace Sep 2, 2014 4:45 PM in response to LondonFirefly
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 2, 2014 4:45 PM in response to LondonFirefly

    My iPhone sometimes scrolls to the top of whatever note I'm writing and I've given the security code to people.  My creditors seem to only call when I'm already using the phone.  It's occurred to me that someone/machine could be prying into my phone but not sure what to do about it.  I'm totally scared that people will think it's ludicrous.

  • by tonefox,

    tonefox tonefox Sep 3, 2014 12:59 AM in response to racepace
    Level 6 (9,271 points)
    Sep 3, 2014 12:59 AM in response to racepace

    Your note probably scrolls to the top because you inadvertently tap the top of the screen. Normal behaviour.

     

    Nobody is prying into your phone. The only ludicrous thing here is that you give away your security details. Change your password and keep it to yourself.

  • by racepace,

    racepace racepace Sep 7, 2014 8:55 PM in response to tonefox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 7, 2014 8:55 PM in response to tonefox

    Thanks for the response.  I  understand where you're coming from, I think.  It's not me accidentally swiping up.  Could be a screen malfunction... But it's off putting to see your phone being autonomous lol.

     

    What's truly ludicrous is that these phones don't have a guest mode.  There are plenty of times when people use one another's phones, for phone numbers, battery issues and driving situations among others.  That's never happened to you?

     

    I change my passwords regularly.

  • by USB20,

    USB20 USB20 Sep 17, 2014 3:33 PM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2014 3:33 PM in response to suzanne3382

    These folks are using cracked copies of Forensic software that is specifically designed for spying, investigation and password cracking. This type of software is freely available online. You can google "How I hacked my own iCloud account" article to read more about it.

     

    iphone - delete your iCloud account. iCloud is easily cracked and they are usually access your iPhone backups that store passwords, browsing history, photos, etc. Any cracking soft can easily guess your 4-digit access code, so make it more complex.

     

    Desktops - do everything to secure your router settings as much as possible (use 20+ WAP2 password, etc). They can ping your IP from any network around the world using special software. Once they access your router, they cracking your admin and router default passwords and can access your computers remotely, install everything they want. Learn about routers as much as possible to modify your network settings and make it more private. Get network monitoring app and see who is visiting your network.

     

    Today every smart kid by the age of 17 is able to remotely hack into your devices if it's not fully protected. It is very easy.

  • by soondoboo,

    soondoboo soondoboo Oct 4, 2014 7:50 PM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2014 7:50 PM in response to suzanne3382

    I would like to add that my iCloud account has been hacked numerous times and pictures and information in my Notes Application deleted.  Someone also wrote here that anyone with access to your phone number can remote access your phone. Is this true?

     

    For the record, I find it very disturbing that after all the consumer complaints about such serious security breach, Apple still denies that their products can be hacked.

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Oct 5, 2014 9:41 AM in response to soondoboo
    Level 9 (58,414 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 5, 2014 9:41 AM in response to soondoboo

    soondoboo wrote:

     

    I would like to add that my iCloud account has been hacked numerous times and pictures and information in my Notes Application deleted.

    Having your iCloud account hacked has nothing to do with the possibility of your iPhone being hacked. In fact, you don't even have to have an iOS device to have an iCloud account.

    Someone also wrote here that anyone with access to your phone number can remote access your phone. Is this true?

    No, it's utter nonsense.

    For the record, I find it very disturbing that after all the consumer complaints about such serious security breach, Apple still denies that their products can be hacked.

    The truth is, unless you disable by jailbreaking the security that Apple has put in place, your phone can't, at the time of this writing, be "hacked". If you go and jailbreak your phone, what happens is not Apple's responsibility and they make no representation that a jailbroken phone can't be hacked. A car manufacturer can tell you their cars are very safe but if you disable the airbags and don't wear your seatbelt, and are subsequently injured in an accident, you can hardly claim that the car is not as safe as the manufacturer claimed.

  • by taihofrogman,

    taihofrogman taihofrogman Oct 13, 2014 9:15 PM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2014 9:15 PM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Well... although jailbreaking drastically raises your chances of having your device hacked, you cannot rule out chances of violating a device that has not been jailbroken.  There are a number of legitimate processes, let alone apps, that may have vulnerabilities that aren't currently known by the public at large. The AppStore scans for known vulnerabilities and attempts to gain unauthorized access, but bottom line is that any app that works over the network (including system processes) is potentially vulnerable to attack.

  • by drowl,

    drowl drowl Nov 5, 2014 3:33 AM in response to suzanne3382
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2014 3:33 AM in response to suzanne3382

    Twice in the past week I have awakened in the middle of the night to find my 4s iphone camera on. My iphone was locked.

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