The main signs that your phone is being tapped. Wiretapping iPhone (iPhone) at a distance
In our turbulent times, information is everything. Every person needs to be mindful of data protection, especially if they are a business owner. It's no secret that competitors use all methods to gain an advantage. Among them, wiretapping is most often performed. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to install bugs. You can remotely install spyware on your selected phone to help you gain access to information. Under the guise of an innocent Internet newsletter or SMS, an iPhone user can unknowingly let in the “beast.”
There are many technical means for remote wiretapping. But all the necessary equipment is very expensive, and its range of action is often limited. Therefore, intelligence agencies or detective offices use it to spy on especially important people. It’s much easier to install malicious software and “listen” to the user for free.
Harbingers
What signs can indirectly indicate that the gadget is wiretapped? The first thing that should alert you is that the battery is draining too quickly. Typically, the iPhone6 can last a day without recharging. Version 6 Plus, thanks to a more powerful battery, can last up to two days. If it sits down faster, even when just in standby mode, when several applications are not running at the same time, and the phone gets noticeably warm, then some third party is running in the background BY. Therefore, when in a couple of hours the energy drops below 10%, and the smartphone battery is not even one and a half years old (usual service life), there is a reason to check and exclude other “symptoms”.
You should be alerted by clicks, beeps, extraneous voices, and an echo effect while talking on the phone. The characteristic zoom sound when you bring your smartphone to the speakers of a computer or TV, which they usually emit during a call, is also indicative. If your phone is wiretapped and a spy app automatically sends information to scammers, your iPhone will always make noise near the speakers.
Also, wiretapping, interfering with the normal operation of the system, can cause spontaneous switching on and off of the device. The screen and applications on it can light up and go out for no reason, the Internet mercilessly slows down and freezes. Suddenly a lack of memory is detected, although you have not downloaded anything before or updated the system. If the iPhone takes longer than usual to turn on and off, and sometimes even ignores this order, it means that the spy application is taking a long time to complete its work or is completely blocking the shutdown.
During a call, check to see if a conference call is running, especially if you don't usually use it. After all, this way strangers can hear all your conversations. 
To activate it, scammers send a special SMS with the text “abracadabra” to the victim’s number, which are recognized by the iPhone as service management commands. You can also, without knowing it, catch a virus via Bluetooth, so never leave it turned on for a long time, especially in crowded places - in a hurry you won’t even notice unusual activity on the device.
Users who have installed a jailbreak need to be especially careful. They cannot be sure that iOS hacking applications do not contain malicious scripts that can be configured to steal information from the device. Do not trust this procedure to anyone if you yourself have little understanding of the process. Even in decent service centers there is no guarantee that you won’t get a “spy” in addition to the Jail. And it turns out that in this case, the security of your data is only a matter of a certain amount of banknotes. Why then take such a risk for the sake of a couple of free toys or other software “garbage”? Why voluntarily lose the benefits of one of the most secure mobile systems?
What to do if they “listen”?
If you find all the symptoms described above on your device, there is an extremely high probability that wiretapping is still worth it. The first thing to do in this case is to turn off all communication channels - remove the nano-SIM card, turn off Wi-Fi. Carefully review the list of programs, especially those installed in the near future - from the moment problems are identified. Did you find anything suspicious? Remove the battery because Sometimes attackers, having hacked the Bluetooth module, can activate it remotely, even when the iPhone is turned off.
The best solution would be to reset all settings to factory settings, but this will irretrievably lose all information on the iPhone. You can, of course, make backup copies and restore the device from them, but it is not a fact that the “spy” will not be registered with them either. As an option, use “old” copies.
The other side of the coin
We would also like to warn jealous spouses who want to spy on the conversations of their other half, or worried parents who are worried about their child, not to install dubious applications on their devices that are full of sites. Again, it is not a fact that the downloaded software does not pose a security threat to both your iPhone and the device of the person being monitored. Even paid applications purchased for a lot of money are not a guarantee of safety and can cause harm. Therefore, under no circumstances install wiretapping programs if you have absolutely no knowledge of this area.
In addition, wiretapping is illegal, and you will not be able to prove anything if any problems arise with accounts or accounts linked to the iPhone.
Yes, undoubtedly, the special, closed system of “Apple” smartphones, although it is considered the most secure, is also susceptible to third-party hacking. Therefore, it is better to delete, without opening, letters from unfamiliar or suspicious addresses. Be sure to set a password for the screen lock - you want it to be 4 digits, or by scanning your fingerprints. Do not leave the gadget unattended in plain sight, and do not give it to strangers. The harsh rules of the modern world do not forgive such mistakes.
It’s not all that scary yet, but you should carefully install unknown programs. One of the marketing technologies in the hands of attackers will allow them to gain access to confidential information.
This is all due to services that are gaining popularity like, Eddystone and the like.
A set of iOS functions and commands for wireless data transfer between the device and special beacons. The technology appeared in iOS 7. A similar service is also available in the Android OS, starting with version 4.3.
These technologies are used indoors, complementing traditional methods of determining device location (GPS, Wi-Fi signal and cell tower signal). By accurately positioning the gadget, you can interact with it.
Such “beacons” can use the Bluetooth protocol for communication or exchange packets in the ultrasonic range.
Beacon (from English “beacon”) is actively used for marketing purposes; depending on the user’s position in the shopping center, he will be offered to install the application of a particular store, shown a cinema program, discounts in a restaurant or special offers in a grocery store.
Do you think this is just another marketing tool? No matter how it is!
At first glance, “beacons” seem like a harmless thing, and some users will even consider them a useful innovation that needs to be quickly implemented everywhere.
How do beacons work?
The technology is based on ultrasonic signal exchange between devices. Neither mobile internet nor a Wi-Fi connection is required to work. The beacon sends special signals at a certain frequency, and a device that falls within range receives them and responds.
The device only uses a microphone that “hears” signals beyond the range of human hearing.
Is this even legal?
Quite. Most companies that use technology ultrasonic crossing tracking, claim that they do not store recordings of audio signals coming from devices.
According to them, the receivers cut off most frequencies and perceive only the necessary ultrasonic vibrations. But, as is often the case with modern technology, there is always room for abuse.
Nobody is stopping software developers from collecting the entire range of transmitted sounds. This way you can get much more information, including confidential information.
And what is the danger
Theoretically, it is possible to turn a smartphone into a device for wiretapping the user, and you only need to induce the victim to install a special application; no intervention in the operating system or hardware is required.
After this, if you have a special beacon nearby, you can collect data from the microphone and at the same time listen to what is happening around the desired smartphone.
The most interesting thing is that even a TV or radio can act as a transmitting beacon; it is enough to transmit the necessary ultrasonic tones nearby the device, and then collect the data coming from the smartphone using special receiving equipment.
This is not a myth, the technology already works
At a recent European symposium on security and privacy, a report was read out that ultrasonic crossing tracking is actively used in mobile applications by some developers.
In total, we were able to find more than two hundred programs that implement this technology. It is too early to panic, it has not yet received widespread use, but everything is moving towards this.
Among the marked programs there are many unknown applications with a small number of installations, however, ultrasonic tracking is available, for example, in some regional applications McDonald's And Krispy Kreme. Using these programs, you can start “listening” to your clients’ smartphones at any time.
Among European countries, the technology is most widespread in Germany, where about 10% of large shopping centers are already equipped with beacons.
And what can be done?
Fortunately, the technology is now easy to control. Without the user's permission, the application will not gain access to the device's microphone. Hello to all those who like to allow programs everything at the first launch.
Those who do not pay attention to such requests can not only “feed” marketers with confidential information, but also become victims of wiretapping without even realizing it.
You can go to your iPhone right now Settings – Privacy – Microphone and see which programs use it for their own purposes.
If any messenger or video app wants to access it, that’s fine, but when such permission is requested by an app from a clothing store, a service for collecting coupons, or ordering food, this is a reason to be wary.
Android users don't need to quietly laugh on the sidelines, this applies to them too
You need to go to the settings of the corresponding application, click on the gear icon, and then look at the “Application Permissions” item. This way you will see which programs can potentially conduct wiretapping. To do this, you will have to go through the entire list of installed software.
Enthusiasts are already developing a patch for Android that would block the operation of such services, and human rights activists are going to demand that these technologies work within human earshot.
Telephone wiretapping
It is believed that eavesdropping is not a very noble activity. But sometimes it's simply necessary. An exception may be situations in which human safety is at risk. Or you need to check someone's integrity. But how to do that? It turns out that finding out what almost anyone is talking about is quite simple. Wiretapping iPhone becomes available to anyone.
This function may also be useful for parents, a business manager - to control employees, lovers - to confirm fidelity, and other people.
A special application called spy is all that is needed to make wiretapping an iPhone possible. The user only needs to install this program on a mobile device. And then monitor the object using his smartphone as much as you like. The call interception program does the following: - Intercepts the call.
Call history becomes available. The user can track who incoming calls came from, who the target of surveillance called, phone number, duration of the conversation, its date and time.
- Interception of calls made via IP telephony.
- Recording of what is happening around is carried out using a microphone on a smartphone.
- Listening to what is happening around you in real time.
Using the spy program, you can not only hear other people's communications. The person who installs this application also has access to the object's correspondence. The developers have made sure that all the necessary functions are present so that not a single detail is missed. Be aware of the contents of all SMS, mms messages, as well as correspondence in chats and social networks using the spy program!
Ordinary citizens are having fun with “harmless wiretapping” of other people's cell phones.
It must be said right away that it is impossible to listen to a smartphone by intercepting its signal using some kind of box with an antenna. The data transmission channel is well encrypted, so “wiretapping” at this level can only be carried out by telecom operators themselves at the request of certain intelligence services. However, you can keep an eye on your beloved wife in less high-tech ways.
There are many programs available on the Internet that can secretly work on the victim’s phone and save or transmit to the side recordings of telephone conversations, SMS messages, geographic coordinates, and even pictures from the built-in camera. Some programs can work like a full-fledged “bug”: you call the device and, unnoticed by the owner, hear everything that is happening around. This is quite convenient when you need to eavesdrop on a secret meeting or an equally secret date.
Users of phones based on the Android and Windows Phone operating systems are at risk. There are spy programs for the iPhone, but you won’t be able to install them on an unjailbroken smartphone (such programs, of course, are not sold in the official App Store).
It is quite difficult for an untrained user to determine that there is a “bug” on the phone. However, as he writes, there are several signs that can indirectly confirm the presence of “wiretapping”.
1. High battery temperature
If your phone battery is hot, it means it is actively discharging. This is normal during a call, but if no one has touched the device for a couple of hours, and it still remains noticeably warm, then something is happening inside it, for example, spyware is running.
2. Your phone runs out of battery too quickly
This point follows from the previous one: if the battery discharges too quickly, especially if the phone has not been used more than usual, it means that some potentially dangerous application is “running” inside it. However, remember that over time, batteries “wear out” and a decrease in operating time is normal. You only need to think about it if a week ago the phone worked on one charge for three days, but now it only works for one.
3. Delay when turning off
Pay attention to the delay when turning off the smartphone. If this process takes a suspiciously long time, is accompanied by blinking of the backlight (it may remain on for some time after turning off), or shutdown fails at all, then something is happening to the phone. These could, of course, be ordinary technical problems, but more unpleasant options cannot be ruled out.
4. General strange behavior
If the phone spontaneously turns on the screen backlight, turns off, reboots, installs or launches programs, then most likely you are already “under the hood”. Of course, here, too, we cannot rule out some malfunctions in the operation of the operating system, but we cannot ignore this.
5. Interference and interference
Interference can be of two types: those that you hear during a conversation, and those that occur when you bring the phone near, for example, audio speakers. In the first case, the echo or any other noise (clicks, hissing, etc.) that accompanies your conversation with any subscriber at any time is suspicious. Sometimes the appearance of interference is the result of poor signal reception or other similar problems, but if the noise is heard everywhere and not for the first day, then this is a reason for concern.
The second case is when the phone’s transmitting antenna points to other devices, primarily to speakers or speakers. You've probably heard this "gurgling" sound many times. It occurs during a conversation, as well as in standby mode at short intervals when the phone accesses the base station. Continuous gurgling when no one is talking on the phone is considered abnormal. This may mean that the spy program has contacted another phone and is transmitting all surrounding sounds to it.
Unlike its rival company, Apple works more carefully to protect its devices from viruses, but it is “lame” just like in smartphones running other systems. And in terms of protection against data interception in iOS devices, everything is not so reliable.
How to wiretap smartphones
iOS devices are tapped in the same ways as all mobile devices - through the efforts of the telecom operator itself or by any other persons at the software level. It all depends on who is listening and for what reason. If the intelligence services of the home country become interested in the activities of the smartphone owner, then at the legislative level they can require the mobile operator to provide all the necessary information.
If there is interest from competitors, partners, enemies - in general, persons who have nothing in common with the intelligence services, either virus software or remote wiretapping using substitute base stations is used. The first method is much cheaper, but difficult to implement. It is not so easy to install an application to intercept calls on a person’s phone without his knowledge. The second method requires serious financial costs, but if we are talking about very important information, and the end justifies the means, getting hold of such a device is not a problem for attackers. And you can listen to a conversation using a replacement station very easily.
How to determine if your iPhone is being tapped
By external signs - braking, battery overheating, sudden shutdown of the device - the intervention of attackers can only be determined if wiretapping is carried out through installed virus software. To detect and clean the virus, it makes sense to install a reliable antivirus from the official store.
If an iPhone is tapped by a mobile operator or through a substitute base station, the owner of the device will never suspect interference, since this method of interception does not affect the operation of the smartphone in any way. But you can detect wiretapping using applications that can distinguish, identify a replacement station, and signal a connection to it.
It should be emphasized that all methods of detecting wiretapping only help to identify the fact of the action itself, but do not prevent it.
Is there reliable anti-tapping protection for iPhone?
At the software level iPhone protection from wiretapping to some extent, it is implemented in applications for detecting a spoof station, as well as in several instant messengers, the developers of which claim to use cryptographic encryption of calls and SMS.
As mentioned above, detection of a suspicious station is not full-fledged protection, it is an alarm about interception after the fact, and you should not rely on this method.
From time to time, iOS software developers announce new developments based on AES encryption with a 256-bit key, which is the basis for the most secure communications. As a result, based on the testing results, it turns out that the application does not understand why it requires detailed information about the owner of the smartphone and storing the number on the server. And there is no evidence that these developments help protect calls from interception.
The developers of well-known instant messengers also claim that calls and messages are securely encrypted using the same AES-256 algorithm, but the owner of one of them has already been exposed to cooperation with the intelligence services of his country. The other is constantly being accused of non-compliance with the laws of our country, so crypto protection in instant messengers is probably a temporary phenomenon.
A smartphone where listening is useless
Although iOS is constantly working to reduce vulnerabilities, protecting iPhone from eavesdropping practically not implemented at the software level. Third-party software products have also not proven to be effective in terms of operational protection.
For this reason, Kaymera has developed a cryptophone - a comprehensive solution on all fronts:
- Blocking third-party software when attempting to interfere with the control system;
- disabling applications in the background, which prevents them from being used without the owner’s knowledge;
- encryption of calls and SMS using AES-256 protocol;
- access control from external services (base stations, WiFi access points);
- blocking unauthorized access to media files and device devices (camera, microphone).
That is, if you change your iPhone to a cryptophone, you can reliably protect important data from the device’s memory from theft, and at the same time encrypt calls and messages at the hardware level.
