Other Is this even possible? Someone hacks iPhone and changes password.

[dsr2]

Hubby just told me that someone in his office could not into their IPhone. Not sure which Iphone this was. Face ID didn’t work nor did the password. Contacted Apple who told them that someone got into their phone and changed their password (AFAIK, not their Apple ID). They were getting weird text messages recently with symbols.

My interest is totally piqued..

Is that even possible?

 

[casperes1996]

Theoretically, yes. If the phone is running a very old version of iOS, perhaps even feasible. But in practice, I'd highly doubt a 'hack' has been performed - social engineering perhaps. Someone watching him type his password or someone who knew it changing it. But getting into a locked iPhone is not something you just do. - Anything is theoretically possible, but if you have the knowledge and capability to get into an up-to-date and locked iOS device, you can make a lot of money, and I highly doubt you'd go around using those skills to lock people out of their device in your office, instead of collecting your millions of dollars from Apple, the FBI or companies wanting to sell iPhone unlock products. - So my bets are on social engineering or similar where someone was just told or saw the password

 

[dsr2]

Theoretically, yes. If the phone is running a very old version of iOS, perhaps even feasible. But in practice, I'd highly doubt a 'hack' has been performed - social engineering perhaps. Someone watching him type his password or someone who knew it changing it. But getting into a locked iPhone is not something you just do. - Anything is theoretically possible, but if you have the knowledge and capability to get into an up-to-date and locked iOS device, you can make a lot of money, and I highly doubt you'd go around using those skills to lock people out of their device in your office, instead of collecting your millions of dollars from Apple, the FBI or companies wanting to sell iPhone unlock products. - So my bets are on social engineering or similar where someone was just told or saw the password

That’s what I thought too but my husband said that is what Apple told her.

 

[casperes1996]

That’s what I thought too but my husband said that is what Apple told her.

I guess either an employee that didn't know better, or perhaps more likely, a little white lie to not hurt the costumer's ego by making it sound like it was their fault.
"Ah yes it probably got hacked" is probably a much easier way to deal with it as a support staff than

"Someone must've seen your password. Things are secure on our end"
"SO YOU'RE SAYING I LET SOMEONE SEE MY PASSWORD?!"

It may give a wrong impression about the digital security but it's no doubt a way of avoiding abuse by the front, user-facing support staff who have to deal with a lot of people every day who are already angry and doesn't necessarily treat them very well - I've worked at a call centre in the past, and sometimes you just wind up lying if you know it'll make the costumer happy and resolve things faster - a little "everybody wins" lie. They get their problem fixed faster and feel like they had a victory over the company and we get to move on to the next person without getting yelled at.... Happy I don't work at a call centre

 

[josecuervo888]

Hubby just told me that someone in his office could not into their IPhone. Not sure which Iphone this was. Face ID didn’t work nor did the password. Contacted Apple who told them that someone got into their phone and changed their password (AFAIK, not their Apple ID). They were getting weird text messages recently with symbols.

My interest is totally piqued..

Is that even possible?

Highly unlikely but possible.

 

[ian87w]

That’s what I thought too but my husband said that is what Apple told her.

The term "hack" has been overly misused by the mainstream media that it has put bias on the general public whenever there's an issue with technology. Sometimes customer support will try their best to use terms that can be understood by the user, albeit sometimes incorrect.

 

[TimothyL]

Most Likely somebody changed the password on the actual phone rather than hacking it

 

[gnasher729]

Normal humans can only change your passcode if they know your old passcode. There's a one in 50,000 chance that a random person can unlock your phone using their finger print, and a one in a million chance that they can unlook your phone via FaceID, but that doesn't help: iOS only lets you change the passcode after entering the old passcode.

Now an organisation like the NSA might or might not be able to get into your phone without knowing your passcode. But they are not stupid. They would extract everything they want from your phone, and restore the old passcode, so you would never know it happened. And they'd need to get hold of your phone for some time.

So the sensibles explanations are that someone managed to find the passcode (looking over your shoulder while unlocking, finding the passcode on a piece of paper, or trying the passcode 1234), and pranked the person. Or they just forgot their passcode. Or someone swapped the phones for a prank - if I give you my phone then you will also find that your passcode does't work, and later I swap the phone back.

 

[TiggrToo]

Hubby just told me that someone in his office could not into their IPhone. Not sure which Iphone this was. Face ID didn’t work nor did the password. Contacted Apple who told them that someone got into their phone and changed their password (AFAIK, not their Apple ID). They were getting weird text messages recently with symbols.

My interest is totally piqued..

Is that even possible?

I'd take this with a large block of salt.

Case in point, way back in the late 2000's I spoke to someone who told me her husband was incredibly impressed with the GPS app on his new Android because the satellite view showed him his vehicle driving on the road, tracking him 100%.

Now, we're not talking about a pseudo car image overlaid on a 6 month old Google satellite image, nope, he was totally convinced it was fully real time, aka the images seen in Hollywood movies of the time.

No amount of me trying to convince her that this was all totally impossible made any difference. The moment she'd heard a story from him, it became absolute categorical fact in her head. She ended up calling me a bald faced liar and stopped talking to me as a result!

Sometimes we misunderstand and then solidify something because it seems plausible based on whatever TV show or movie has been seen recently...