How to Tell if an iPhone Has Been Hacked?

katykat on 28/06/2020 - 20:40
Last edited 29/06/2020 - 14:20

Asking for my Dad, who is having trouble with his iPhone 6. I've never had an iPhone so have no idea myself.

Recently my Dad's iPhone has started to act weird and play up. Examples include: randomly dialing numbers whilst he's on a call, cutting out on calls, going into different screens when he's trying to do something, calling a different number when he's trying to call someone, random key presses appearing on the screen when he's not touching it.

At first I thought the touch screen might be out of sync but my sister suggested he's been hacked. Phone is only ever on wifi for updates and he doesn't use it for browsing, just calls and text, though his plan does have a small amount of data included.

Any idea what this might be? If he has been hacked, how do we know and how do we fix it?

UPDATE: Thank you everyone for reassuring me and pointing out that this is a known thing. Looks like I was kind of right that it was a screen sync thing. Dad has a iPhone 6+, not jailbroken etc so I am now 100% positive he's got ghost touches. We had already tried updating the software, but will try a few of the other suggestions like removing his case and maybe a factory reset. If it doesn't fix it, we'll look at getting a new phone. The phone is pretty old so might not be worth going the Apple replacement route (whether for free or the $249 program depending), but I guess it's up to him. He's a bit curmudgeonly and stuck in his ways and this has turned him off Apple hahahaha.

Mobile Apple Mobile Phone

Comments

  • notdealbot on 28/06/2020 - 20:58
    +10

    Could be Ghost Touches.

    • Randxyz123 on 28/06/2020 - 21:02
      +1

      +1

      Also, it won’t be hacked per say. More likely to be a technical malfunction. First thing to do is a full restore of the OS

  • ode1online on 28/06/2020 - 21:13
    +1

    yes sounds like the Touch screen is faulty, might be his CASE if he happens to be using one.

  • pinchies on 28/06/2020 - 21:13
    +8

    I can say with quite some confidence — you haven't been hacked.

    I've seen this issue many times before. When the touchscreen becomes faulty, this is one of the ways that the problem can manifest. A screen replacement will usually fix it.

    If you have had a screen replacement performed before, take it back to where it was done and ask for their advice.

    Question: are there little flickering grey bars at the top of the screen? If that is the case, then you'll need to start looking for a new phone, not just a screen.

    Source: I've worked in a certain fruit based company's retail stores in the past, and saw this issue many times with iPhone 6 and 6+.

  • Prince K on 28/06/2020 - 21:17
    +3

    Happened to my iPhone 6 Plus years ago. It’s a known issue and when I took it to Apple, they swapped it out to a refurbished unit free of charge, no question asked. It was about 2.5 years old back then - definitely out of warranty

  • YeemaiI on 28/06/2020 - 22:00
    +1

    Had experiences with this before and can say 99.99% sure the phone has NOT been hacked and is what others have said, it's probably a faulty display. There are only a few reasons why/how your iPhone can get hacked:

    -Download a dodgy app on the AppStore (there have been instances)
    -Jailbreak your phone and then download some mod
    -Use a weak Apple password
    -Possibly, use public WiFi

    I would recommend taking your dad's phone into a phone repair specialist to fix it or at least give a quote

  • Kangal on 28/06/2020 - 22:11
    +4

    How to tell if an iPhone has been hacked?

    • Ask Siri
  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 28/06/2020 - 23:04
    -4

    iPhones (basically) cannot be hacked unless you jailbreak it. — If you haven’t jailbroken it you would have a better chance of being struck by lightning then have your iPhone hacked so it is most likely just a display issue.

    • ThithLord on 29/06/2020 - 08:16

      Salty Android babies down-voting ya, WYLSC.

    • No Username on 29/06/2020 - 18:52

      Jailbreaking is not the only method of rooting the device. You can still gain root via silent JS implementations.

      • Zachary on 29/06/2020 - 21:23

        not if you have javascript disabled or an old enough browser that doesn't even run the scripts correctly….or at all…

  • Any thing on 29/06/2020 - 06:41
    +1

    Is it an iPhone 6 Plus or the regular 6?
    If it’s the 6 Plus there is a known fault that causes issues like you’ve described and Apple has a program to repair it for $249 as long as it’s within 5 years of purchase.
    https://support.apple.com/en-au/iphone6plus-multitouch

  • SnowDragon on 29/06/2020 - 08:23
    +5

    As others have said; not hacked.

    If someone were to theoretically "hack" your dad's phone, would they sit there waiting for him to use it so they can randomly press another key while he types?
    No, they'd take all of the data - pictures/texts/emails/saved passwords and then extort and/or try to steal his money.

    A hacker wouldn't let you know that you've been compromised.

  • CheapandUsed on 29/06/2020 - 08:45
    +1

    If he has a screen protector on, try removing it. Sometimes a bit of moisture can get in between and as the phone flexes slightly it causes phantom touches.

  • dscott85 on 29/06/2020 - 09:33
    +1

    Hey Op, had the exact same problem as your dad - faulty touchscreen (known as “ghost touches” as other posters have said & a known issue with iPhone 6’s). Was very embarrassing as my iPhone was calling people repeatedly at 2am in the morning & the like.

    It is 100% a hardware issue & known to apple, apparently the touchscreen can became loose overtime, resulting in this “ghosting”. Like you & your dad I felt I was being hacked as it is literally like someone is remote accessing your phone. I took my phone into apple, explained the issue & they replaced the phone with a brand new one free of charge.

    They will ask you if you dropped the phone of course, just stick to your guns & say it started happening through normal use.

    I’m sure you can organise a new phone for your dad too, just explain your dad’s experience - the random calls, etc as you have in your opening post, deny dropping & it probably wouldn’t hurt to explain the inconvenience the saga has caused. Good luck, hope you have a good outcome.

  • No Username on 29/06/2020 - 11:45
    +1

    As long as you are not jailbroken and have not downloaded or sideloaded unsigned code then it could just be ghost touches. There are only 2 companies I know that can create RAT software for iPhones which can be deployed via visiting a site using safari or using the mail app. But they charge money. So unless this is a phone with a business profile deployed or holding sensitive documents there is nothing to worry about.

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