My iPhone was accessed remotely

Over the last several months, a few seemingly minor incidents triggered me to increase my home network’s security and to start paying attention to the devices connected to my network. However, there has been a sudden

increase in the frequency and severity of events which has led me to investigate the situation more thoroughly. After many hours of research, I am confident that (at the very least) both my laptop and my iPhone have been accessed remotely. For how long, I’m not sure (but if my crazy, narcissistic ex who has a history of spying on me has anything to do with it, probably a long time).


I completely reset all my devices when I first became aware of the remote access to my laptop, which I only just discovered during the last week. Unfortunately, they managed to gain access again so this time, I completely wiped the hard drive on my laptop and re-installed Windows from a recovery drive, and as for my iPhone, I did a complete factory reset, created a brand new Apple ID during set up, and because I believe access was obtained by hacking my network, I did not connect to any wi-fi or Bluetooth device and have only downloaded a VPN, virus protection and private browser. I’m hoping that someone on here could review my Analytics Data since the reset and tell me if anything still looks suspicious or if all looks good now.

Posted on Apr 30, 2023 7:32 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 30, 2023 7:44 AM

Trying to interpret apple diagnostics isn't meant for us mere mortals. Unless you have jailbroken your iPhone, the chances of your phone being accessed remotely are most unlikely. If you have jailbroken your phone, anything is possible and that would be on you and there is no one here who could possibly help you with issues which happen on jailbroken phones.


Otherwise, trying to read diagnostics, which only Apple can do, is an act of futility.


The only other way someone could remotely access your iPhone is if you handed your phone to them and they installed Remote Management Software on the Phone. Go to Settings > VPN & Device Management > If there is a profile there, remove it.


Change your Apple ID Password too, if you are concerned.

Similar questions

28 replies

Jun 25, 2023 5:50 PM in response to MrHoffman

That's the weird thing. My phone is not even close (or shouldn't) to connect to the router, as it's in bridge mode and the phone is using cellular data. One of my laptops (an old 2012) I even disconnected Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas, I removed the ssd, then connected an external dvd reader to boot the original old OS, and even so, the partition are there, even with a new ram memory. My guess is this codes may have been installed on the firmware? My iPhone's options keep turning on and off, and honestly, I'm about to collapse, specially after supposedly been fixed at the service shop...there are some "exceptions" installed on my laptops proxies, ahhhhh, I'm going crazy. Is it possible a remote intruder to gain control by connecting to my MAC addresses, or installing stuff relating my devices to a parallel Apple ID I don't have access to? Maybe with Xcode or something? Because I got tons of codes related to swift on my laptops

Jun 25, 2023 6:06 PM in response to Community User

Why do you have your router in bridged mode, and what other local device has taken over the routing responsibilities here?


And… why?


The usual reason to switch an ISP router box into its bridged mode is so that a second firewall/gateway/router/NAT device can be installed by the local network administrator between the ISP box and the local network.

Jun 25, 2023 9:08 PM in response to MrHoffman

Got your point, but I think I found a really good description to my problem on this other post of people experiencing exactly what I am suffering. Please check when you can. Thanks so much for you valuable tips and taking the time to guide me through this.

cheers!

link: MDM

Nov 18, 2023 4:37 PM in response to lobsterghost1

It's NOT always on the person if their phone was jailbroken.


If a phone was jailbroken behind your back by someone like a disgruntled abusive ex, who had already been sneaking into your computer and phone and cloud for years before the breakup, and then they gave access to all that info to whoever they wanted, including any rando online, basically doxxing, where would you begin to correct it and the resulting tech/device problems? When you can't afford to buy a 3rd new phone. When you realize this happened for years after you left the ex and never knew someone was piggybacking on your cloud/device until people got bored and blew it all up.


Even when factory resetting multiple times and making multiple new Apple ID's with a "from scratch" setup (no restore from backup, completely fresh ID and no cloud enabled etc) yet it still doesn't work.


When one has pretty much deleted their entire online presence with the exception of major necessities like bill-payments and grocery orders and health stuff like telehealth. No social media, one real email with one backup email and a few decoys just in case.


Harrasment can't be proven when it's all centered around private personal info being sent to people like family and friends and neighbors and employers and landlords. When people are angry and believe you openly shared their private info but you didn't share their personal info with anyone except maybe in therapy, which has been via telehealth since lockdown on devices that were accessible to your ex before you split.


The only proof is the suddenly hostile/weird attitudes of everyone around you, people who suddenly start to talk about deeply private info they shouldn't know, and it can barely even be reported to IC3 or the cops except to say your prior emails were all hacked and all the contents emptied.


That your iCloud was accessed and completely deleted and in the old data's place were crazy photos to corroborate all the racist social media posts that were made while you thought your account was deactivated or when you were sleeping.


When your cloud had been set to sync WhatsApp and notes you made for therapy and which you thought were set to only save to your phone and then those notes got accessed, copied, and edited to say even more crazy stuff so when you first realized what was going on a reformatted and redownloaded the compromised cloud, all that ended up on your phone were insane photos and crazily edited notes while the original photos and notes and everything else is just gone.


What would you suggest then? Except trying to read logs and trying to become a programmer/hacker/apple device expert. While also trying to chase down any proof that your new device and ID are still screwed up and no matter how many new emails and IDs and WiFi passwords and docsis routers you buy, someone is still tracking you and sending damaging lies about you to anyone new you might meet and messing with your ability to even find a lawyer or tech expert to help sort it all out. When every web page you visit is broken or full of garbage. When your eSIM deletes itself on a regular basis and sometimes becomes a business line and sometimes duplicates itself in the second eSIM slot and sometimes disappears for over a month and you have to get a tracfone and have to change everything to paper mail and these days less and less places are even offering paper mail and if you're disabled social security won't let you use paper mail for your payment for more than 3 months before they cut you off for not setting up direct deposit.

Jan 18, 2024 10:31 AM in response to riaricks

I would like to comment generally on this topic. Being victim of intimidation, harassment, phishing, gaslighting. Is extremely destructive mentally and should you intervene in the assistance process should be extremely supportive and avoid just providing them wrong.

an important point needs to mentioned is that people are getting hacked, not devices. You should apply the same vigilance we use in life when we are online.

Apple is probably one of or the company that will fight for everyone’s right to privacy.

Apple but astronomical amount of effort in the development of means of security.

please take to time to educate yourself about all the different level of security are capable of providing.


Here is a link that will certainly help you understand and how to proceed with your research on a potential security breach within your device.


Apple security releases - Apple Support


Apr 27, 2024 11:00 PM in response to riaricks

Because if they have installed MDM management then its on a hardware level. whatever you do you cant fix. most likely all devices in house will be connected. You would have to get every thing including TV and things with bluetooth or wifi smart home bought again. But with that amount of knowledge of your whereabouts they can easily break in change light bulbs/chargers or leave a device near to be able to find your phone again. Also your phone will have geo fence which is able to talk to any device near it and know all of its details network/sim state etc. Plus NFC. If they clone a base station even worse everything you do on 4g/3g goes to their base station first any device near you try to use will ultamitely go to the criminal.

device management wont show on iphone settings. you need to log into your icloud work school account even if you dont have one and it will say the account already exsists. dont listen to people and apple saying the settings device management shows it because it doesnt. they have remote settings agent i found on kernel. if you have been through what i have the past 3 years. there is no escaping it. lost my buisness, my properties, my life basically. And i have tried everything you can imagine to escape it even moving states.

Jun 25, 2023 7:36 PM in response to MrHoffman

because as most of the weird behavior were related to Wi-Fi connections. So, I sent my devices to supposedly "clean" up (disks, reinstalling system, etc) and then use them over Ethernet, with the exception of my iPhone which only runs with its cellular data. I changed my isp to a new one, new modem, new everything, but as I mentioned before, these partitions were still there so everything started again. I was planning to get a Cisco but the seller said I should first make sure to get my devices clean, other way the firewall/gateway would not detect what was already into my devices. So, that's been my problem, not sure when to do what, after making sure everything is right in place to start clean again.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

My iPhone was accessed remotely

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.