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Although iPhones is more secure than their Android device, but it still can be hacked in a variety of ways. This article will give an in-depth look at how to tell if your iPhone has been hacked, what to do and how to avoid iPhone hacking.
The Main Methods of Attack
A targeted attack on an individual. This type of attack is quite expensive, and only concerns a fringe of the population such as journalists, people involved in the negotiation of certain contracts, etc. For this type of attack, hackers install malicious software by exploiting unknown flaws in iOS or in certain applications.
- Your iPhone was hacked by app
Applications directly available on the Apple Store. These applications most often capture your personal data with the aim of selling it. For example, a game that asks for access to your location should look suspicious. In any case, don’t give it these rights.
The main authorisation requests that should put you on alert are:
- Rquesting access to your location.
- Requesting access to your address book.
- Requesting access to your microphone.
- Requesting access to your camera.
Someone with access to your phone can download spyware onto it. This is one of the most complicated situations to detect and correct.
Just like on your computer, your iPhone can be hacked by clicking on a website, a booby-trapped link, an email or a text message.
- Connected to A Public or Free WIFI Network
Another method is to access your phone’s traffic while connected to a public or free WIFI network. This allows hackers to redirect you to booby-trapped sites and/or retrieve login credentials that you will use while browsing.
How to Tell If My iPhone has Been Hacked?
There are some symptoms that should alert you:
- Your phone is regularly hot.
- The battery drains even when you are not using your tablet or phone.
- Your phone is slow when you are browsing the internet.
- You notice a significant increase in outbound data usage.
- Outgoing calls or texts that you have not sent.
- Your friends say they receive strange messages from you.
- Pop-ups and notifications that display certain ads, which mean that the phone is infected with adware.
What to Do in Case of Hacking
In case of doubt, there is no foolproof solution. I can suggest two programs that will help you make a diagnosis. There is an application called iVerify and another called Lockdown Privacy.
You can also activate the NextDNS service on your phone. You can use its console to check if there is a DNS request in a random format – a random domain name that your device is accessing. This could be an indicator that your phone is compromised and trying to send information. Once you understand which application is contributing to the connection attempts, remove the application immediately.
Depending on the diagnosis and severity of the hacking you have different options.
- In case of a minor problem, such as an application stealing your data, you can simply delete it.
2. In case of a major problem, your phone is no longer safe to use. If someone from the outside has really got hold of your iPhone/iPad, which has a very high level of protection, then you should conclude that your device is no longer safe to use. It should remain switched off.
3. You should change your important passwords (bank, social networks, email, Apple, Google, Amazon…) as soon as possible, from another device that you consider to be secure, in order to protect yourself against the risk of identity theft.
4. You should consider factory resetting your device and possibly reselling it. If a keylogger has been installed, every keystroke is recorded and sent to someone. Until you are sure that it is gone, you can no longer be sure of your privacy.
How to Protect Your iPhone from Hacking
1. Never ‘Jailbreak’ your phone, as you will remove a number of Apple’s existing security measures.
2. Back up your phone from time to time on your Mac, and regularly on iCloud. Be careful to use a strong password for the iCloud service and use Apple’s two-factor authentication. This is because a hacker who obtains this password can directly download your backups without needing your phone.
3. Don’t click on suspicious sites, attachments or links.
Finally, I recently did an article on NextDNS. It’s a good protection if you enable it on your equipment.