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Preventing Spying Hack

J

JForlan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 11, 2010
1
0
This question pertains to concern about possible hacking or spying. Let's say you have a stalker working at your cellphone carrier, would using VPN prevent them from seeing what you are doing including text, e-mails? Would it also prevent them from seeing what application you use on Iphone?

And there's talks about new cellphone spy software that might be installed without your knowledge if you left your phone unattended. Say someone borrowed my phone and took it outside supposedly to talk for a while, would wiping or doing a master reset or factory reset on the phone clears them of any possible spy software?

Thanks
 
They can't see anything you do on your phone other than who you're calling and texting. They can't hear the calls, they can't read the text messages, they can't see which applications you're using or what emails you're sending and to whom.

Using a VPN wouldn't help you even if they could see all of that stuff because with the VPN, all of your traffic is still going through the cell network, of which they have control.

Your best bet is to contact the police and have them take care of the person.
 
Let me go grab my tinfoil hat:D
tinfoil_hat.jpg
 
As an AT&T employee I can tell you that we can be fired for looking at private customer data without a business reason. Report this person to their supervisor or whatever way you can contact their company.

I'm assuming you are worried about this person because they work at AT&T. But you don't say what they do...do they work in a retail store? answer phones in a call center? work in a data center somewhere? etc
 
If you are worried about a compromised phone, drop it into DFU mode and do a restore. Of course you will lose your jailbreak and unlock, but you will be sure that there is no malware on that device.

If you are worried about someone eavesdropping on you via the cellular network, don't bother. Unauthorized access tends to get stomped upon without mercy. Cellular carriers log with detail who is accessing what, so if someone gets logged looking up their ex's records, that may be grounds for immediate dismissal for gross misconduct (means no unemployment.)

If you are using a dodgy hotel's Wi-Fi, I would look into a VPN service. Not all E-mail providers support an end to end SSL connection, and there are nasty things a blackhat can do with an unencrypted Web connection (man in the middle, hijack session cookies, etc.) So having your traffic encrypted to a VPN like StrongVPN may be a good idea.

If really worried, consider using Skype.
 
You lot make fun, but it's not far out. Check this.

That page clearly says:
This unique system records the activities of anyone who uses your iPhone. You install a small application onto your phone. It starts at every boot of your phone but remains stealth.

After the software is setup on your phone it will record SMS and call activities and then silently upload the data to your private Mobile Spy account using the Internet. The software also records GPS locations every 30 minutes when signal is available.
Click to expand...

If someone takes your phone for a bit, they could easily install that onto it, type their Mobile Spy account details in, and leave it to run and spy on the owner of that phone.
 
Just for the record, it is possible for some AT&T employees to access customer text messages. They store them on their servers for something like 72 hours, in case they're subpoenaed to provide them to law enforcement.
 
0dev said:
You lot make fun, but it's not far out. Check this.

That page clearly says:


If someone takes your phone for a bit, they could easily install that onto it, type their Mobile Spy account details in, and leave it to run and spy on the owner of that phone.
Click to expand...
Photo & Video Log

All photos & videos taken by the phone are recorded & are viewable.

Thats just scary.
 
0dev said:
If someone takes your phone for a bit, they could easily install that onto it, type their Mobile Spy account details in, and leave it to run and spy on the owner of that phone.
Click to expand...

The first of principle of system security is physical security. Of course if someone with enough motivation and skill gets ahold of your iPhone and jailbreaks it he could install some sort of spying software. That's easily prevented simply by not handing your phone to anyone you don't trust.

And if you suspect or fear your phone may have been compromised, a simple restore will completely wipe your phone and remove any doubt.
 
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