Prevent Hacking Into My iPhone

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Level 1

12 points

Prevent Hacking Into My iPhone

I am reading with some interest and alarm about the current news regarding the hacking into cell phones by one of Rupert Murdoch's news organizations, "News of the World". When researching this, I also saw a news-clip that showed a hacked cell-phone allowing the pick-up conversations while not even being turn-on. This is unreal!! Though many sites that I "Googled" showed the spy-hacking going on, how this is specifically done was not clearly explained.

What I'd like to know is a simplistic explanation as to how someone can hack into my iPhone without my knowledge? I can envision a hack if someone physically obtains and manipulates my iPhone without me knowing it and downloading some malicious software into the iPhone. But how can this be done without physically obtaining my iPhone, and what can I do to prevent this from happening? I have an iPhone 4.

/s/ Tony

Posted on Jul 8, 2011 7:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Jul 8, 2011 7:53 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

dont' jailbreak it
do put a passcode on it
don't loan it out
don't sync any PDF's of unknown origin to it.

Follow this and you'll be OK.

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Answer 2

TonyP_Vil Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 8, 2011 9:15 AM in response to paulcb

Paulcb, I believe I'm doing what you're advising, however at times after using my iPhone making calls, ... after making some calls, I may not turn my iPhone off, just letting turn-off after 3 minutes automatically, so it may be open. If the iPhone is not turned-off and still open, can someone remotely hack into my iPhone?

Thanks.

/s/ Tony

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Answer 3

roaminggnome

Level 10

106,365 points

Jul 8, 2011 9:20 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

Extremely, extremely unlikely.

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Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

170,790 points

Jul 8, 2011 9:45 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

"can someone remotely hack into my iPhone?"

no

hacking require a service being run

like you going to a web site

or you running a web/database/ftp server

it just being open don't pose any thread

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Answer 5

TonyP_Vil Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 8, 2011 9:59 AM in response to Rudegar

So, I guess these celebrities, deceased UK soldiers' families, etc. that may have been contacted by the News of the World operatives, were inviting them to a website and unkowningly imbedding software into their computer when visiting that website. Afterwards when syncing their cell-phone with their computer, the malicious software got into their cell-phone.

/s/ Tony

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Answer 6

modular747

Level 6

19,656 points

Jul 8, 2011 10:13 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

Not at all. Their cell phones were not hacked. The newspaper hacked the voicemail which is located on the carrier, not the phone itself. They listened to and deleted voicemail messages - they did not listen in on live conversations.

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Answer 7

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Jul 8, 2011 10:14 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

You won't find a more secure smartphone than the iPhone 4. All responders have told you the same thing... it's not an issue if used properly, plus I'm guessing you're not a "celebrity". If you're still concerned, get a basic phone that only makes calls. If you're a celebrity, have 'your people' deal with it. 😉

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Answer 8

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Jul 8, 2011 10:42 AM in response to paulcb

If you read the coverage of this issue you will see that many of the people (including a 13 year old murder victim) were not celebrities and they didn't have "people" to deal with. And as modular747 correctly stated they didn't actually hack the phone so suggesting getting a basic phone won't work. They hacked the voice mail system, the actual device being present was not necessary, they just needed the phone number.

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Answer 9

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Jul 8, 2011 10:57 AM in response to deggie

Geez Deggie, I was responding to his specific concerns about getting his phone hacked, not what actually happened in that particular case. Plus the celebrity part was a joke based upon his comments... note the 😉 at the end.

Lighten up a little, it's Friday! 😉

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Answer 10

Jul 8, 2011 10:58 AM in response to deggie

The way the "media" have been reporting on this supposed phone "hacking" issue in the UK is quite misleading. It's giving the general public the false impression that phones can easily be "hacked" and phone calls listened into.

However, as correctly pointed out a few times in this thread already the phones themselves were not "hacked" at all. The journalists (allegedly) obtained the mobile phone numbers from corrupt police officers, and dialled into the phone operators voicemail retrieval system, and were able to listen to and delete messages because the phone owners had not changed the default voicemail PIN code.

Not exactly "hacking" as I understand the word to mean...

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Answer 11

modular747

Level 6

19,656 points

Jul 8, 2011 11:18 AM in response to Julian Wright

In fact, from what I read, it's not clear whether it involved land line voicemail as well.

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Answer 12

Feb 16, 2012 2:09 AM in response to TonyP_Vil

Okay so something similar just happened to me. I was sitting right next to my friend playing music on the spotify app that i had just downloaded and he received a message from my phone. I had not sent a text in over an hour. We kept replying to the text messages and what not. We restarted both of our phones and turned off our bluetooths. But he was still receiving answers to the questions we were asking. I do not know what is going on and have no idea as to how to resolve this. If anyone can help please do; i am freaking out.

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