veritylikestea
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: My devices have been hacked. What do I do?

i was using my ipad a short while ago when suddenly it locked itself, and was askiwhich I'd never previously set up. I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it's still there) saying that my device(s) had been hacked by 'Oleg Pliss' and he/she/they demanded $100 USD/EUR (sent by paypal to lock404(at)hotmail.com) to return them to me.

 

I have no idea how this has happened. I am not aware of having been exposed to malware or anything else, although i did recently purchase some new apps - perhaps one of these has something to do with it? I don't know. I am not sure what avenue has been used to reach my devices - I'm about to use my husband's laptop to check through some of my accounts (gmail, etc) and see if there is any clue there.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? What can or should I do? Many thanks

iPhone 5

Posted on May 26, 2014 4:57 AM

by georz,Solvedanswer
georz georz
Level 1 (10 points)
A:

I had the same problem originally. This is what I was told to do (and did) over the phone with applecare support.

 

Turn off your phone.

Plug your cable into the computer and have itunes up (do not plug into the phone yet)

Press and hold the home key on your off phone (I did mine for about 10 seconds). If nothing happens, plug in the cable into your phone (keep holding the home key)

What you want to see come up is the picture of itunes and cable on the front of the phone

Your itunes should then recognise the phone as an unidentified phone

Select restore factory settings (it should down load some software) ~15 mins and automatically install

The phone should go through some of the standard reset screens (usually black screen with apple icon and loading bar)

You will be prompted to restore the phone.... do this from itunes not the phone

 

Throughout this process you must not let the phone or computer go into sleep mode.... and don't disconnect.

 

I had the same issue with the lock screen but it was related to sim card once I did the restore.

 

I had to set the erase from icloud website, but that didn't originally work as it requires connection to the internet for it to apply, hence plugging it into the computer.

 

I accidentally started setting up my phone via the phone and got stuck on the sim card lock screen so had to do it from scratch again and this time via itunes and all good. Hope that helps

Posted on May 26, 2014 6:37 PM

Close
veritylikestea

Q: My devices have been hacked. What do I do?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 32 last Next

  • by slcurtis,

    slcurtis slcurtis May 26, 2014 7:03 AM in response to slcurtis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:03 AM in response to slcurtis

    By the way, i seem to have backed up my phone successfully to my computer - maybe you all should try and do this too in case you need to erase it later.

  • by Frappuccino,

    Frappuccino Frappuccino May 26, 2014 7:04 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:04 AM in response to veritylikestea

    Yes I've also changed all passwords. Most important password is your email by the way. You can recover loads of passwords with access to your email address.

  • by poppyp_z,

    poppyp_z poppyp_z May 26, 2014 7:05 AM in response to slcurtis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:05 AM in response to slcurtis

    Good idea, might try that first.... I rang Optus and they just suggested keeping the phone off for now as it's safer and speaking to Apple tomorrow.

  • by slcurtis,

    slcurtis slcurtis May 26, 2014 7:09 AM in response to poppyp_z
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:09 AM in response to poppyp_z

    Just noticed it won't let me back up my ipad, but it let me back up my phone.  My ipad was the one where i stopped the lost mode.

    So, don't stop lost mode if you want to restore it. 

     

    I'm going to just leave my devices now and speak to apple in the morning.

  • by pogster,

    pogster pogster May 26, 2014 7:10 AM in response to poppyp_z
    Level 4 (2,296 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 26, 2014 7:10 AM in response to poppyp_z

    This is an interesting discussion but how is not having passcode set your device have anything to do with this unless they have access to your device. To lock the phone down remotely it would seem your icloud account would have to been accessed would it not?

  • by Frappuccino,

    Frappuccino Frappuccino May 26, 2014 7:17 AM in response to pogster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:17 AM in response to pogster

    Yeah I think that it had to be done through an iCloud hack. Don't know how else this could have happened.

     

    You're right, a passcode on the device is unrelated.

     

    So... if a friend of yours knows your passcode and steals your phone, and you declare it lost, they can still unlock it with the passcode they know.

  • by slcurtis,

    slcurtis slcurtis May 26, 2014 7:20 AM in response to pogster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:20 AM in response to pogster

    Well yes, they have done two actions via icloud- put a passcode on our device (as we didn't have one previously) and used the 'lost' feature to place a message on the front of the device.  If we had a password on the account, we could have removed the 'lost' feature and opened our phone as usual with our passcode. However, because they have set it for us, we have no idea what it is and therefore cannot gain access unless we randomly guess the correct code.

  • by lilmky2,

    lilmky2 lilmky2 May 26, 2014 7:21 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:21 AM in response to veritylikestea

    Ok this is what I did, I connected my iPod to my computer it stalled in the backup (as it's my kids I cancelled it) could have stalled due to computer downloading new software update.

     

    I asked it to restore, he denied as I didn't have the passcode. I cancelled that and asked again... this time it restored now it is restoring the iPod with the last back up.

     

    Will let you know if I can access it when it's finished.

  • by lilmky2,

    lilmky2 lilmky2 May 26, 2014 7:24 AM in response to pogster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:24 AM in response to pogster

    If you had your own passcode, the hackers passcode is obsolete as your passcode would override it. Therefore he could not gain access. If you didn't have a passcode on your device and he set one, then his would be the one you need to unlock.

  • by poppyp_z,

    poppyp_z poppyp_z May 26, 2014 7:26 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:26 AM in response to veritylikestea

    So much for Apple having the best security in the world...... This is ridiculous. 

  • by lilmky2,

    lilmky2 lilmky2 May 26, 2014 7:30 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:30 AM in response to veritylikestea

    Ok it worked, so a bit of mucking around. You have to back up and restore. If it tells you it can't just ask again until it does.

     

    Hope that helps, got my kids iPods back that way.

  • by poppyp_z,

    poppyp_z poppyp_z May 26, 2014 7:32 AM in response to lilmky2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:32 AM in response to lilmky2

    Have you tried it with a phone though?  Phones have a lot of different information to an ipod...

  • by slcurtis,

    slcurtis slcurtis May 26, 2014 7:34 AM in response to poppyp_z
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:34 AM in response to poppyp_z

    It won't let me even see my iPad in itunes at all.. comes up with an error that it can't connect as it is locked and in lost mode.

  • by lilmky2,

    lilmky2 lilmky2 May 26, 2014 7:40 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:40 AM in response to veritylikestea

    You will need to take it out of lost mode first, so log into your iCloud account and take it out of lost mode first. Then try the backup and restore. It worked on our iPods.

     

    I didn't need to do it on the phone as my phone had a passcode and is fine. Would like to know if it works on anyones phone as well.

  • by Frappuccino,

    Frappuccino Frappuccino May 26, 2014 7:46 AM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 26, 2014 7:46 AM in response to veritylikestea

    Breaking news: I've been hacked a 2nd time. I've just recieved an email that my phone was put into Lost Mode again, after I successfully changed my password.

     

    I have also done a full virus and malware scan, so I know I don't have an issue on my PC.

first Previous Page 3 of 32 last Next