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Smartphone Hacking - Evidence

SuperSuze
4: Newbie

Hello,

 

I pay for a monthly unlimited data SIM card with Vodafone (it was a 24 month contract, but I'm no longer locked in) and my smartphone has been repeatedly hacked during my contract, likely from a neighbour. *

 

Today, the hacker attempted to get a Chrome certificate from an app (I don't use) called Find My Phone, which would have given them lots of control over all my phone's contents. However, they left behind a calling card in the form of a notification (and details of their server address, which is a Sky account (funnily enough the same as my neighbour's network).

 

I called Vodafone and my bank's fraud team, and they both agreed I'm the victim of smartphone hacking and put "fraud alerts" on my account. However, I do not believe Vodafone is truly investigating this incident like their Customer Service Advisors claim. Firstly, they didn't even take details of the notification/evidence so how can they properly assess it?

 

Does anyone have any advice on how I can follow this up and get some proper action from them? Also, couldn't the network detect a hack from their end through interruptions to my service or through my device?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated. I'm not looking to change phone's yet, just gather evidence of the hacking to build a legal case against them.

 

 

*This involves manipulation of apps, changing my passwords without my permission, messing and changing the volume/brightness/background of my phone, typing random text in Word documents (when I'm not typing) and changing screen size etc. Apparently, they think this annoys me.....

 

The phone also heats up and slows down and their are interruptions to the connection speed and phone connections, which my bank told me is when they are downloading the information from my data sim card.

 

 

9 REPLIES 9

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Yes @SuperSuze , you have been given some good advise from @hrym on this previous thread

https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly/My-connection-has-been-hacked/m-p/2681763#M62050

 

As far as your password change is concerned here https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly/Changing-Wi-fi-password-with-a-Data-SIM/m-p/2695163

drop the Social Team a message through Social Channels here: Contact Us and they will be able to address all issues and advise the best course of action.

Hello AnnS,

 

I've already followed all of the advice on the previous thread, which didn't make the slightest bit of difference and I've changed my Wi-fi password multiple times now. My phone is still compromised, a new SIM doesn't work and I'm more concerned now about collecting evidence to deal with the source of the problem and with getting Vodafone to actually do something and tackle the source or provide evidence to assist me/others.

 

Thanks for replying though :Smiling: Any specific technical advice on how to record hacks to my data sim (proof of IP etc) would be useful, along with experiences of other people who have had their phones hacked too.

 

On a side note: the new legal action being reported today against a very famous paper is certainly fascinating.

 

 

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

This sounds like a pretty sophisticated, certainly targeted and very determined attack.   Without asking for details, I can only assume you're a very worthwhile target and that this is something more than simply malice.   It's possible that a VPN, set to be always active (some of them will turn off when you connect to mobile data) might provide some protection, but if the device itself is being read, rather than the traffic, this will be very limited.   It might, however, prevent a future incursion if you can get rid of this one.

To be honest, this sort of thing is way beyond the experience of this forum, and possibly Vodafone's normal support.   It sounds as though you need the help of a data protection specialist, who would be able to answer all the quations we can't.   If you're as high profile as you seem, it's likely that you have connections to an organisation that could advise where to start.

Thanks hrym,

 

I'm not a worthwhile target in the sense of being a celebrity, but I am definitely a worthwhile target to a particular organisation who would have the money, resources, power and motive to orchastrate a very sophisticated cyber attack/hack. I previously threatened them with legal action. I'll take your advice :Smiling:

 

SuperSuze

AnnS
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

@SuperSuze 

 

To add to what has already been written by @hrym , it may be an idea to change your number and Apple ID. You have probably already thought about this  as well. 

This seems incredibly farfetched. The security of your local device is also your responsibility not vodafones. The most obvious thing is to change device or factory reset it. You also mention bluetooth tethering, cameras don't normally come with bluetooth but would use wifi, make sure your mobile hotspot has a decent password. The stuff you're describing would need a high level of sophistication and most likely physical access to the unlocked device to install malware, what device is it? It's generally pretty hard to exploit modern smartphones, especially remotely so exploits wouldn't be wasted by a neighbour messing around.

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Actually, most modern security cameras (and most smart objects) have bluetooth connectivity and hacking is incredibly commonplace in society, both bluesnarfing and device hacking. Some of it isn't actually even that complicated according to the experts (my dad was a project manager for an American computer company btw and security measures were tight with regular encryption of project files etc).

 

My Member of Parliament recently published an article on the rising prevalance of hacking the Internet of Things in modern society. She's also an electrical engineer who was head of OfCom for years. Do you think she's paranoid too? She seemed to be very smart when I've spoken to her :Smiling:

 

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]

 

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I can't see any reason a security camera would have bluetooth given it doesn't support the bandwidth required to stream video so would be redundant vs a model with wifi which most have. Anyway, even if they had compromised the camera, they would still need to compromise your smartphone which would have better security and are hard to exploit these days, especially remotely, and exploits would most likely be reserved for state or financial targets and not wasted by a neighbour.

 

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]

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The camera has built-in bluetooth - it came in a shiny box and I can read :Smiling: but if you'd like me to post a shiny picture for evidence, I'd be happy to. Better yet, go question the company who built it, they're called Canary.

 

Now, please go annoy somebody else....

 

Regards,

  • SuperSuze

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove off inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]