Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone and iPad remotely wiped!

B74A

B74A

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 31, 2008
96
4
Asia and Europe
I was just using my iPhone about 30 minutes ago, and in the middle of making a video clip, the Apple logo came up. My first thought was that it had run out of power (although it had about 65% left). The Apple logo was a bit different than usually, and then it said activation required.

As my developer profiles had run out recently, I thought of them, but this was weeks ago and I had updated them with no problems.

It turns out now, that both my iPad AND iPhone are REMOTELY WIPED, and I DID NOT DO IT!

What the FXXX?

I did not look at the clock but it must have been around 0720 UTC on 15 Jan 2011.

Be warned, if your phone is OFF right now, check your iCloud online first, before you turn your phone on ...

Sh.. .... what to do now, I guess I have to restore from backup.
 
After I restored the phone, there was one of those pop-up messages with sound, you can send from find-my-iphone, and it just said "Hi".

What is quite weird is, that after the iCloud restore, the default email address was NOT mine, but one belonging to a girl from Shanghai (a Gmail account). That is, as far as I can see ...

I tried that account with my own password, but it did not work. Now I logged in with my own, and shortly after that, I will change the password (I just changed it a few weeks ago, as it lacked numbers and capitals)
 
B74A said:
After I restored the phone, there was one of those pop-up messages with sound, you can send from find-my-iphone, and it just said "Hi".

What is quite weird is, that after the iCloud restore, the default email address was NOT mine, but one belonging to a girl from Shanghai (a Gmail account). That is, as far as I can see ...

I tried that account with my own password, but it did not work. Now I logged in with my own, and shortly after that, I will change the password (I just changed it a few weeks ago, as it lacked numbers and capitals)
Click to expand...

This is not quite the same, but related as it could lead to the same problem...

I logged into my gmail account yesterday and there was a banner at the top warning me that somebody from Taiwan had logged in on the 31st December (don't ask why they waited until yesterday to notify me of this :confused:)

I use the same email address and password for iCloud so I'll have to change everything now :(
 
I have several accounts, and I actually forgot which one I used for Find-my-iPhone (but now I remembered). It is NOT the same account I use for iCloud on the phone, and neither is it my main email.

So there are three email addresses:

1) The one I use for find my iPhone
2) The one I use for iCloud (backup)
3) The one I use mainly as ... email

Am I correct in assuming that it is the "Find my iPhone" email which has been hacked, in order to send me a set of Sunday morning "Remote Wipe" to iPhone and iPad?
 
B74A said:
I have several accounts, and I actually forgot which one I used for Find-my-iPhone (but now I remembered). It is NOT the same account I use for iCloud on the phone, and neither is it my main email.

So there are three email addresses:

1) The one I use for find my iPhone
2) The one I use for iCloud (backup)
3) The one I use mainly as ... email

Am I correct in assuming that it is the "Find my iPhone" email which has been hacked, in order to send me a set of Sunday morning "Remote Wipe" to iPhone and iPad?
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you're talking about. You use your Apple ID use Find My iPhone, and you use your Apple ID for iCloud too. You don't use e-mail addresses, you just use your e-mail address as a login name. Go icloud.com, use your Apple ID to log in (the same user/pass info as you use to download apps) and there you'll be able to track your phone and wipe it if necessary.

Edit: I couldn't login to iCloud.com using my Apple ID either. Turned out my password was expired (thanks Apple, for letting me know this without Googling). Try to see if you can login to https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/ with your Apple ID if you can't login to iCloud.com using your Apple ID.
 
Last edited:
Merkie said:
I have no idea what you're talking about. You use your Apple ID use Find My iPhone, and you use your Apple ID for iCloud too. You don't use e-mail addresses, you just use your e-mail address as a login name. Go icloud.com, use your Apple ID to log in (the same user/pass info as you use to download apps) and there you'll be able to track your phone and wipe it if necessary.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the iCloud settings and the find my iPhone settings let you put in different accounts to what the app store does, thus you can use three different apple ids.
 
matttye said:
Yes, but the iCloud settings and the find my iPhone settings let you put in different accounts to what the app store does, thus you can use three different apple ids.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? Find My iPhone is a part of iCloud since iOS 5.
 
Merkie said:
Are you sure? Find My iPhone is a part of iCloud since iOS 5.
Click to expand...

When I open find my iPhone there's a login screen asking for my details. I haven't actually tried using a different apple id as I only have one, but presumably you wouldn't need to enter any details at all if it used the same details as the ones held in your iCloud info.

I'm using an iPad but I don't think that'll make a difference.
 
matttye said:
When I open find my iPhone there's a login screen asking for my details. I haven't actually tried using a different apple id as I only have one, but presumably you wouldn't need to enter any details at all if it used the same details as the ones held in your iCloud info.

I'm using an iPad but I don't think that'll make a difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's the Find My iPhone app, but that is not relevant. You can use that app to track any iOS device. It doesn't make your phone traceable! That's a common misunderstanding.

If you want your phone to be traceable, you have to go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars -> Add Account -> iCloud or MobileMe -> enter your Apple ID. Your Apple ID and your phone are now bound to eachother.

If you want to trace an iPhone (not YOUR iPhone!) you can use the Find My iPhone app. So imagine your friend's iPhone got stolen, you can fire up the Find My iPhone app on your device, enter your friend's Apple ID and thus trace HIS iPhone.

There's a difference between the Find My iPhone service and the Find My iPhone app :) . For your phone to be traceable, the Find My iPhone app is absolutely useles - you need to configure the service through Settings on your iOS decice. It does nothing. The app is just a nice mobile version of the "Find My iPhone" page on iCloud.com.
 
Merkie said:
Yeah, that's the Find My iPhone app, but that is not relevant. You can use that app to track any iOS device. It doesn't make your phone traceable! That's a common misunderstanding.

If you want your phone to be traceable, you have to go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars -> Add Account -> iCloud or MobileMe -> enter your Apple ID. Your Apple ID and your phone are now bound to eachother.

If you want to trace an iPhone (not YOUR iPhone!) you can use the Find My iPhone app. So imagine your friend's iPhone got stolen, you can fire up the Find My iPhone app on your device, enter your friend's Apple ID and thus trace HIS iPhone.

There's a difference between the Find My iPhone service and the Find My iPhone app :) . For your phone to be traceable, the Find My iPhone app is absolutely useles - you need to configure the service through Settings on your iOS decice. It does nothing. The app is just a nice mobile version of the "Find My iPhone" page on iCloud.com.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean now. There's a "find my iPad" option in the iCloud settings which I've enabled and that appears to use the iCloud account, but the find iPhone app lets you use any account to actually see the devices you've enabled tracking on.

Makes sense!
 
Merkie said:
Are you sure? Find My iPhone is a part of iCloud since iOS 5.
Click to expand...

Yes, as noted above, you can go to another than the default account, and set it as find-my-iphone, but then the original one is disabled.

This was after the iCloud migration, I made a new account to check it before migrating the other one I had, so I just happen to have different accounts now.

Both devices are restored now (takes ages!), and it seems to be working again. I changed all my passwords and hope this does not happen again. I am really considering whether or not I need a spare phone, on a different account, maybe even a simple call-and-text only one, with lots of battery life. Pre-iPhone age, I used to have a Nokia 6310i - one of the best I had. 2 weeks standby time!
 
Happened again

It happened again, last time was January 15th, now again on March 15th :mad:

I am a developer, and these two devices are developer devices.

Can this be the reason?

5.1 is out, should I have reset my iPhone and iPad after the beta expired? In the check for update, in the iPhone and iPad, which I tried after the final came out, it said I have the latest version. Same did iTunes.

But now I started iTunes, and iTunes says in a pop-up window (iPhone is connected)

The software on the phone "XYZ" has expired and
must be updated to a newer version.


This time, I am taking pictures of the screen and iPhone, with my camera, to have real proof this is actually happing, and what exactly is displayed.

LAST TIME it showed some other persons email, which turned out to be a contact of one of my friends. She is NOT a hacker type of person, and she has no clue about it. We never emailed each other, but the name in the email made me recognize who it was.

----------

When I close the iTunes pop-up window with the warning, and select the iPhone in the left side menu, it now says the iPhone software is up to date, and that it will check again on March 17th ... (in two days)
 
Did you have a beta version of the OS on your devices?

Sounds like to me apple has expired the version of OS you are using. After a period of times Apple disables the beta version. This makes it appear that your device as been remotely wiped. You will need to do a full restore (DFU Mode) to make iTunes see that your device is in need of restore.

This is why you should use a development phone not your main one for developing on - and keep up to date with Beta/released versions
 
I think this is it

danderton said:
Did you have a beta version of the OS on your devices?

Sounds like to me apple has expired the version of OS you are using. After a period of times Apple disables the beta version. This makes it appear that your device as been remotely wiped. You will need to do a full restore (DFU Mode) to make iTunes see that your device is in need of restore.

This is why you should use a development phone not your main one for developing on - and keep up to date with Beta/released versions
Click to expand...

I did have the beta, sure, but I went to Software Update, after the final was out - and then checked for an update. It said I had 5.10, and it was the latest version.

I guess I have to DFU it no matter what, after the beta ends.

Next time I will just make a full backup using iTunes, after the final is released, and then DFU -> Restore.

Thank you for the information.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back