To want to know if he hacked my iphone

[loandbehold24]

I'm currently going through a contentious child custody battle, with a coercively controlling abusive exhusband.

Over Christmas his communication changed. I can't go into revealing details, but on countless occasions he knew things that he could not possibly have know (unless he had been listening to my private conversations, with different people in lots of different places). I began to suspect my phone had been hacked.

I noticed the following

• Unusual log in to my gmail (a log in on a phone model that I do not possess)
• Emails being mysteriously deleted (that portrayed him in negative light)
• Unusual app on my phone that I didn't download
• App permissions on my phone had all changed (microphone and camera turned on for every app)
• Battery draining within an hour and phone often felt very hot
• Data Use soared, (25GB used in 3 days when I had just been using my phone for whatsapp, camera and spotify

I am now convinced my phone has been hacked but need to find a way to prove it. I've contacted apple but they just send me articles on phishing.

Does anyone know of a cyber security expert in London, who can scan my phone for malware?

If he has hacked my phone, the invasion of privacy is enormous (13000 photos, access to emails, location history, etc) He will know my strategy for court and have such an edge.

Any advice very much appreciated.

Also the police should be able to get the relevant evidence from Apple to confirm who has the data (by IP, device no etc) and then link that to (most likely) your ex, so it probably is worth reporting it to them.

Plus all of this could be used in the child custody hearings to evidence his character, controlling behaviours etc.

Absolutely go to the police. I'm amazed your solicitor didn't already recommend this. From what you said above, you can prove something fishy happened, so I'd think they have grounds to at least take a look.

If he potentially has access to your phone's microphone, make sure it's not anywhere near you for important calls on your new phone

I haven't been able to contact my solicitor about this yet.

I paid my exhusband a lump sum to buy him out of the house last October. I can't afford legal advice for a couple of months.

The first quote from a legal company just came back as £1500. I may need to contact the police to see if they can investigate as that would really put my finances under strain.

The only way you will know if it's police worthy is to go to the police station. I would try and see someone face to face as online forms aren't very nuanced. Plus I find different forces can treat the same crime very differently, even down to who is on shift at that particular moment.

The whole backup to a different icloud is certainly very worrying. Does he have any stalkerish or harassment behaviours that added together could form an injuction order?

I’d be interested to know what you find out.

Im currently divorcing. After I moved out I bought a new iPad and got a new email address.

However I found that my old email address on my old iPad stopped being received for about 4 weeks I received no emails on that email address at all. Luckily I had been using my new email for all the important stuff, but there was stuff to do with inland revenue still attached to the old email which caused a problem.

Then one day I looked at my old iPad and a ton of unread emails just appeared. They had dates from the start of the 4 weeks all through to the date when I first saw them.

The reason I have suspicions about my ex is that this old email address was not one of the regular ones eg yahoo, gmail etc. it originally was set up by my ex and is something to do with pickaweb. He gave everyone in the family [email protected].

I had other things like a shared photo album from my Dd disappear and an iCloud email that I hardly used vanish as well.

Anyone any suggestions on what happened to me? @loandbehold24 i really feel for you, it’s a horrible situation and I understand the need to have proof.

This account is very concerning. I hope you manage to discover what happened and use it against him op and Isheabastard

Could you turn him accessing your emails to your advantage? Send yourself an email from a 'burner' address about something that would be irresistible - hiding money, or leaving the kids alone to go out for the night. If he brings it up, you have proof.

I've laid two false trails but I won't say what they are as they could be too revealing.

Change your iCloud password for a start, if you have not already. Make sure you aren’t in any family sharing setups. Change any accounts that share the password.

You can scan your phone using an app called iVerify. which looks for vulnerabilities on your phone.

Don't take the possibly hacked phone into the police station with you. If he is using it as a listening device somehow then he will know and might be able to hide what he's doing remotely (I don't know, it sounds mad but who knows?!) I'd be so paranoid if this was me that I'd turn off the phone and wrap it in something so it can't still hear me and then hand it over to the police.

For those saying how hard it is to hack is funny. It's not rocket science to have had all her details previously or to possibly guess passwords etc. it's also very easy to install invisible tech to track everything from location to conversation regardless of what phone you have. It's also very common for car trackers,small microphones in the house etc etc without the owners even knowing of them

It’s not ‘hacking’ if he knows her password though.

It’s INCREDIBLY difficult to ‘hack’ an iPhone. This is him exploiting poor security to begin with. It’s not ‘hacking’.

edit: this reads like victim blaming. Not my intention. If her ex has accessed her accounts without her knowledge, it’s despicable. But it’s not ‘hacking’. Never reuse passwords, turn on 2fa at all times. Use a password manager to create secure passwords. It’s built into your iPhone!!!

People massively misuse the word hacking as described above, using someone’s password that you didn’t have to decrypt isn’t hacking. If you can get into an iphone remotely without the users intervention let me know because I’ve a bounty to collect with that knowledge. I believe it’s about 100k US dollars and 250k right now.

https://security.apple.com/bounty/categories/

Apple offer bounties for anyone who can hack their devices. Which gives you an idea of just how difficult that is.

It sounds like he has logged into your email and used that to reset the password on you iCloud.
Go into your gmail now, change the password and set up two factor authentication. Do the same for your iCloud.

op @Ladyj84 makes a good point.
have you checked for microphones and the like in your car and house. They can be v small indeed, look on Amazon

Ok so it will tell you all the devices that have signed in with your Apple id if you go to settings and click the box at the. Wry too with your Apple ID. Do you see anything but your own devices there?

You may also be able to see the location of all devices linked to your Apple ID on the find my... app

This might be useful

refugetechsafety.org/secure-your-tech/

OP just something to think about. If you're using the email address he got into for Mumsnet it's very likely he will know your username and will also see this thread.

This.

It sounds likely he had logged into your email account.
Change the password.

However unless he is better than most government employed spy's, its highly unlikely this is possible.

If you have an Amazon Alexa change that password too. You can listen into them remotely.

I'd change the locks too seeing as 18 days ago you were away and that when he did it. Maybe he went through your house too. I remember my ex got into my house and trashed it looking for the evidence I had for court, I knew it was him because nothing was taken just kids artwork and photos. I had all the evidence in my car as I'd just been copying it to keep backups at a trusted persons house. I just knew ex was going to do that and was right. Something else I do is email myself everything important re the children/safety etc photos and emails and letters. My cloud storage got deleted around that time so now I email everything so if it's ever deleted again I don't loose everything. I never got proof any of it was ex. If advise you to go to the police and I hope they take you seriously personally I found they just spoke to him he said I'm mad and they said well leave her alone and then did nothing. Hopefully they treat you better

However unless he is better than most government employed spy's, its highly unlikely this is possible.

I agree, it's amazing how many people think it's that easy to 'hack' a phone or tablet

I changed the locks in July, after my neighbour saw him inside my home whilst I was out of the country (For reference, he'd moved out the previous August but had just reached a financial settlement so at that point he still had a key)

The digital forensic specialists are calling it an 'email compromised investigation'.

I set up a new email, got an android phone and set up a new mumsnet account to post this.

Just waiting for another quote from digital forensics and planning to speak to a 'friend of a friend' who works as a chief inspector to get some advice.

@loandbehold24 if he has been in your house I would get a bug tracer to run through the house to see if he has put anything in place!

A few years ago lots of mainly female celebrities got hacked and there were untold pictures of them nude / partially nude.
Genuine question: how did that occur with apple devices if they are so secure?

It’s not the Apple device that has been hacked, it’s their iCloud.

On an Apple phone all your pictures are uploaded to your iCloud which is an online storage that you can access from any computer, if you have the password.
To hack someone’s iCloud you need to access their password which you can do if you get into their email and change it.
If you have and easy to guess password, use the same password for everything or don’t have two factor authentication then you are leaving it effectively unlocked.