Surfing through the internet has this amazing ability to make you realize how much of an innocent babe that you really are. 

I started researching this topic because I had booked in to stay at an AirBnB when a stray thought entered my head… How do I know this AirBnB isn’t owned by some creep that wants to film me and my missus doing the horizontal monster mash? Or showering? Or making chocolate soft serve?

There are over 8 billion people on this planet and a lot of them are weird as fudge. What if one of those weirdos owned the place I had just booked out?

When beginning any of these blog posts I like to search the interwebs for stories of these types of things happening to other people so that I can learn a bit from their experiences. And when researching for this post I was expecting to find stories about people discovering hidden cameras in AirBnBs, hotels, change rooms or toilets as I had heard about these types of things happening in South Korea and figured the creeps of the Western world had probably followed suit by now.

Boy oh boy what an innocent little sunflower I was.

Because I did find a whole bunch of stories of people finding hidden cameras, but they found them in places that a pretty little idiot like me would never expect…

Quick note: the below stories are all reddit posts that came from people with random usernames (like hiddencamerascum) so for the purposes of storytelling and readability I made up names for characters to make them a bit easier to follow. The reddit posts are all linked in the headers if you would like more details.

The Parent

Katie is a young 21 year old woman that lives at her home with her mother, two younger brothers, and step father. Katie and her stepdad tend to butt heads a lot, and he occasionally says some questionable things to her, but he’s never acted inappropriately or harmed her. He’s been in her life since she was eight years old and Katie looked up to him as a father figure.

One weekend the family was heading away for a camping trip, leaving Katie behind as she had to work and look after the pets. While the family was away and Katie was home alone her step-dad decided to set up some outdoor security cameras to ensure that Katie and the house remained safe while the family was away. One of these cameras was set up outside of Katie’s window and faced into the yard.

Before leaving Katie’s father suggested that she should have her boyfriend over while the family was away so that she wasn’t alone in the house. This seemed odd to Katie. Previously her dad had made it clear that he didn’t want her boyfriend at the house because he didn’t want them “fucking in his home”. This, I guess, falls into that category of questionable things he’s said to her. But for whatever reason Katie didn’t think too much of her dads change of heart at the time and indeed invited her boyfriend over to stay

The weekend proceeded as normal, her family had fun on their camping trip, Katie went to work and had her boyfriend around afterwards. They hangout. Have fun. Change in and out of clothes. Have sex – everything that  you would expect a young couple to do when they have the house to themselves. 

The next day Katie’s boyfriend notices something a bit odd. The camera outside of Katie’s room obviously needs power to work so her stepdad had plugged it into a power socket inside of her bedroom. For whatever reason the boyfriend was checking out this setup when he noticed that there was something odd about the USB power supply that the security camera was plugged into. When he looked at the front of the charging block closely, lo and behold, a camera lens was staring right back at him. As you would expect this freaked the both of them out and upon a more extensive examination of the power supply they found that it contained a 2GB SD card and was indeed a hidden camera that had WiFi connectivity.

Her stepdad had been watching her and her boyfriend this whole weekend. Watching them hangout. Watching them get changed. Watching them have sex.

As you would expect Katie’s mind spun and she tried to find some way to rationalize her dads actions. Maybe he had accidentally grabbed the wrong charging block, maybe he was trying to protect her from intruders. But the harder Katie thought about this the more she realized that there was no valid reason why her dad would choose to place a hidden camera in her room without her knowing about it. 

Feeling betrayed and devastated, she contacted the police, filed a report, and handed over the camera and SD card. Following advice from her aunt and cousin (who is a lawyer) she held back on telling her mom what had happened until she was back from the trip and Katie could talk to her alone and without the stepdad. Katie posted an update a couple of days later and stated that her stepdad had managed to get ahead of the situation (no doubt alerted by the footage of them finding the camera and then it subsequently going dead) and had somehow convinced her mum that he was in the right. Understandably Katie didn’t want to reveal too many details on why her mom decided to stick with him but she hopes that her mom will come around once the case goes through the court and the full details are revealed to her.

The Partner

Trish and her partner David are both in their mid thirties and have been dating for around 8 years. Unfortunately, like many couples, they had hit a bit of a rough patch over the last two years and despite Trish’s attempts to discuss their issues with David, he was unwilling to broach the subject or make any efforts towards remediating their issues. As a result the couple had not been intimate together in over a year.

One day Trish was going about her business when she gets a text informing her that a package is due to be delivered. The text is from a tech company that the couple had an account with, but given that Trish had not ordered anything recently she assumed the package must have been something her partner had ordered. Reading through the text she noticed the product name “Spy Camera USB Phone Charger 1080p HD”.

WTF?

Trish quickly checked the website to ensure this wasn’t some weird phone scam and, sure enough, listed in their recent orders was a spy camera that’s disguised as a phone charger (sound familiar?). So upon getting home Trish checks the mail, retrieves the package, and waits for David to return. When her boyfriend gets home she hands over the package to David who takes the package and puts it under his desk unopened. Trish is obviously feeling a bit distressed about the fact that her partner has purchased a spy camera and clearly has no intention of telling her about it, so she goes outside to call her best friend to discuss the situation. When she gets back inside she looks over at David’s desk and notices the package has now been opened but that there is no sign of the charger camera. 

Later in the evening Trish goes to the bathroom and sits down on the toilet only to find herself staring directly at a shiny black phone charger that she knows to be a spy camera. 

Double WTF!

This all makes sense to Trish now, she knows that her boyfriend likes jerking off to videos of women using the restroom and she now has no doubt that his intention was to film her on the toilet so that he could have some custom made videos to add to his wank bank.

As you would expect Trish took this opportunity to leave David, however she chose not to go to the police as she already suffers from anxiety and could not bear the stress that dealing with the cops and the courts would undoubtedly entail.

The In-law

Jodi is a 21 year old stay at home mum with a beautiful 5 month old baby. Given that she is already at home with her child she was generous enough to look after her brother’s one year old son at the same time so that both her brother and sister in-law could go back to working full time. Jodi and her partner have converted their spare bedroom into a playroom for the kids and subsequently that is where they spend most of their time playing and napping.

One day as she was tidying up the room she noticed that there was a weird circular object with a camera lens hidden behind the TV in the kids playroom. With a quick bit of googling Jodi confirmed that this was indeed a WiFi enabled camera that someone had set up to spy on her and her kids.

Understandably, Jodi flipped her shit.

First she called her fiance and asked if the camera was set up by him. He vehemently denied that he had anything to do with this and told her that she should contact the police and request a bug check.

Thinking through the situation, Jodi thought about all the people that had access to her house and the ability to place the spy cam, and the only other person that fit the bill was her sister-in-law, as she drops her son off every morning and picks him up in the afternoon whilst her brother and parents only drop around on the weekends. She suspected the camera was placed fairly recently so that ruled out everyone except the sister and her fiance.

But what really affirmed Jodi’s suspicions were some conveniently timed texts from her sister. One morning Jodi dressed her nephew in long sleeved footie pajamas as it gets cold in her apartment, only to get a text five minutes later saying “it’s going to warm up later so please don’t dress (nephew) too warmly, thanks!”.

Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Unfortunately Jodi never posted any updates on the situation so I guess this one will remain a mystery.

So who is most likely to spy on you?

The three stories above are just the tip of the iceberg of what I found online. There were many other stories that mentioned parents, partners, friends, roommates, siblings, and landlords. Whilst there were a couple of stories that I found about people finding cameras in AirBnBs and hotels, they were definitely the minority.

It appears that like many other crimes the person that is most likely to spy on you and take secret videos is someone that you already know and are likely intimately familiar with.

So with that being said…

How do you know if someone is secretly filming you with a hidden camera?

If you have ever seen a movie or TV show you are probably familiar with scenes where detectives and spies pull out a black wand-like thing and start waving it over objects and furniture to find any hidden cameras or listening devices. And maybe you are thinking after reading the previous stories that it might be nice to get one of these things to ensure that you aren’t being spied on at home or places that you visit?

Well surely Hollywood is being entirely truthful about the existence of these bug detectors and we can just pick one of them up on Amazon right?

Right?

Unfortunately not. Whilst there is equipment that is made to detect hidden spy devices, it doesn’t come in the form of a single convenient magic wand. In fact to do this as effectively as they do in the movies you would need multiple pieces of equipment that each cost thousands of dollars, specialized training on how to use that equipment, and several hours to conduct an investigation on each room that you suspect might contain a spy device.

Gosh darn it!

Well fortunately it’s not all bad news, because as we saw in the above stories most of these bad actors are just normal people that aren’t super tech savvy. They are simply purchasing ready made devices off the internet with a hope and a dream that you are even stupider than they are and won’t be able to tell what these disguised devices really are. So as long as you aren’t wanted by the feds (in which case you should probably hire a professional to help you out) it is actually surprisingly easy to spot any hidden spy cameras.

Step 1: Know what hidden cameras look like

The first step to finding hidden cameras is to know what they look like, and this can be achieved with a quick browse through amazon to see what is on offer.

Here are some of the most popular ones at the moment:

USB Chargers:

Smoke Detectors:

Pens:

Alarm clocks:

Car keys:

Clothes Hooks:

Picture frames:

Wall clocks:

Bluetooth speaker:

Screws:

Step 2: Know the three simple steps for detecting hidden cameras

Ok so now you know roughly what to look out for in terms of the objects that might be hiding a camera within them, but what if the creep is using something you haven’t seen before?

Well thankfully there are a few simple steps that you can follow to uncover any hidden cameras:

1. In order for the camera to film you it has to see you, if it can see you then you should be able to see it. So the first thing you should do when searching for hidden cameras is simply look around and examine all the objects in your vicinity to see if any of them contain a camera lens.
   • During you search here a few things to look out for that may indicate an object is hiding a camera:
     • Duplicate items.
     • Random holes in the wall / ceiling / furniture.
     • Weird positioning of items (oddly facing the bed or shower for example).
     • Mirrors – ensure that they are not two way mirrors by shining a light through them or using the finger method (on a normal mirror there will be a slight gap between your finger and its reflection, on a two way mirror there will be no gap).
     • Examine every device plugged into an outlet (cameras need power)
     • Objects that have a glossy glass like finish. As you can see in some of the above examples like the USB charger and the alarm clocks the camera is hidden behind a thin film of tinted plastic. By shining a light at any object with glossy tinted plastic you will be able to see if there is a camera lens hidden behind.
     • If you are not sure about an object google the product name or serial code and see if you find anything dodgy.
2. Turn off your lights and conduct another examination with a bright light. Camera lenses are glass and very reflective so look out for any unexpected reflections / flashes.
   • Whilst doing this you can also conduct an examination with your phone camera and look for purple spots that indicate an infrared light. Infrared lights are used by hidden cameras for night vision and motion detection, you can test this out with a TV remote to see what infrared lights look like through your phone.
     • Note: if you have an iPhone you will need to use the selfie camera as the rear camera has an Infrared filter.
3. Use an app on your phone to scan the WiFi and see if there are any cameras on the network or unfamiliar devices, Fing is a popular app that is available on both iOS and Android.
   • Many hidden cameras are WiFi enabled so that the creep can spy on you remotely in real time as we saw in the stories mentioned above.

And that’s it folks, the steps above are not very sophisticated but they are simple, effective, and can be done with just a phone and no training whatsoever. So wherever you may be you should now be able to spot whether or not there is a hidden camera spying on you.

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This probably feels like an obvious topic and I’m not sure how many people will actually find this useful, but I’m writing this for all the people out there that are as stupid as I am.

Why so stupid?

I’m not exactly sure why I’m like this, maybe it was that one time my brother made a toddler sized dent in the wall when he “accidentally” chucked me at it head first, but the reason it’s relevant now is because I’m one of those dimwitted fellows whose passcode for my phone and laptop is my birthday.

And it’s not even the full six digits, just four. A glucose deprived diabetic suffering from a hangover and a concussion could probably crack it in a few minutes.

But I’m sure (hoping) that I’m not alone and that some of my dimwitted brethren might also wonder how someone is able to remember a number that isn’t their birthday to use as their passcode. 

So in honor of you poor unfortunate fellows I did some research on how to create and remember a secure passcode.

But first…

Why does it even matter?

 Our devices are everything to us.

We use them for work, education, communication, managing our finances, and entertainment. We spend most of our waking hours staring at them.

And because we invest so much time, energy and trust into these devices, our entire lives can be upended and potentially ruined should the wrong person get access.

And often this access is merely protected by a 4 digit passcode.

Grayshift is a company that offers a software product called GrayKey that is able to bruteforce iOS passcodes in order to get access to the device. This is a legitimate company and they only sell this software to law enforcement units (but if the good guys have it the bad guys likely do as well, and sometimes the good guys might also be bad guys) and they claim they can crack a 4 digit passcode in as little as 30 minutes and a 6 digit passcode in around 2 days.

To combat this Apple has since added a feature called USB restricted mode (disables all USB communication 1 hour after the phone was last unlocked) in response to products like GrayKey. But if we know anything about IT is that everything is hackable and it’s only a matter of time before they find a way around these added protections.

And if this kind of software exists for iOS you can be sure it exists for Android, Windows, and Mac as well.

Plus there is the added threat from family, friends and acquaintances that are potentially looking to snoop or steal from you (yes this does happen, hell Jewel’s mum stole like $100 million from her) and know enough personal information about you to be able to guess a weak passcode.

So with that being said, better safe than sorry.

Is your passcode insecure?

So to start off with let’s get into some signs that your passcode may not be secure:

1. You are using a date that is important to you that can be easily found in the public domain – birthdays (your own or a family member’s) / anniversaries / etc.
2. Your passcode contains words that can easily be associated with you – like names of your children, spouse or dog
   • By words I mean the number that correspond the words letters on a phone number pad (fido = 3436)
3. You are using a four digit code starting with 19 or 20 – these are commonly used  codes as they correspond to years that are important to people so hacker tend to include them in their cracking lists
4. Your house or apartment number
5. The last four digits of your phone number
6. Your zip or postal code

Okay so they are the general rules on what to avoid when creating a passcode, but what about specifics? Well it just so happens that some bright nerd actually did a bit of digging and analysis way back in 2012 by looking at passcodes that had been released in data breaches and that were in the public domain in order to determine which passcodes were used most often and how frequently they were used.

So if your passcode is included in the below table – you should definitely change it and if you are creating a new code be sure to avoid any code that is listed below.

Data sourced from datagenetics.com

How to create a secure passcode?

Okay so it is all well and good to know what not to do, but how do simpletons like you and I actually create strong passcodes that are hard to crack and will keep us secure?

First we have to understand that there are two categories of passcode:

1. Passcodes that we need to remember
   • These are the codes that we frequently use in order to get access to our devices like our phone and laptops.
2. Passcodes that we don’t need to remember
   • These are the codes that we use for banking, debit cards and secure applications, etc and that we only use occasionally.
   • For passcodes that fit into this category you should make them at least 6 digits (if possible), make them completely random, and store the codes in your password manager (if you want to know more about setting up a password manager sign up to my email list below to receive my guide “Hard to Hack” which covers password managers and how to use them).
   • Storing all of these passcodes in your password manager means that you only need to remember your device code and your master password in order to get the benefit of having strong, unique codes for all of your other accounts /systems.

So with that being said let’s get to the crux of this article – how do we create strong, unique passcodes for our devices that we can actually remember?

• Note: storing these codes in our password manager is still a good idea (that way if we forget our phone code we can access our manager on our computer and get it) but we will need to remember these codes in order to access our password manager in the first place.

Rules for creating a passcode:

1. Use a code that is at least 6 digits (this is possible on all modern phones and PCs)
   • As mentioned above the GrayKey brute forcing software can crack a 4 digit code (10,000 potential codes) in 30 minutes whereas it takes up to 2 days to crack a 6 digit code (1 million potential codes) and considerably longer for codes that are 7 digits or more. This gives you a lot more time to do damage control and change account passwords, sign devices out of certain accounts (like iCloud and your socials), and lockdown any financial accounts.
2. Use the word method – this involves coming up with a word that is easy to remember (like “steaks”) and using the digits that correspond with that word on a phone keypad (so “steaks” would equal “783257”)
   • Obviously as mentioned above avoid any words or dates that can be easily associated with you.
   • Also ensure that the code that your words correspond to is not listed in the above frequently used codes table as all of these codes are used in cracking dictionaries.
3. Use different codes for different devices, this way if an attacker is able to guess or crack the code for one device your other devices still remain secure.

And there you have it folks, that’s all there is to it. Obviously this is not rocket science and there is nothing special or advanced about this advice but it is simple, effective, and (most importantly) memorable.

Stay tuned, follow the above advice, and may our benevolent and devine techbot overlords protect thee devices forever onwards.

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You ever plan a short hike thinking it will be a nice, pleasant stroll through nature only for a storm to roll in, you get lost half way through, and when you finally do make it back to civilization 9 hours later you look like a drowned rat that’s been dragged through a compost bin? Well that’s me writing this article right now. 

When I started this blog post and began researching iOS security I came into it thinking this will be a walk in the park because everyone knows that iPhones are the most secure phones on the market.

But are they?

After digging through the weeds and spending many hours looking all across the internet for information as to whether Apple’s claims of virtually impregnable security hold true – I have emerged cut, bruised, and shaken to the bone. I can no longer tell up from down, night from day, or iPhone from Android.

Does this mean that the mighty fruit giant has been lying to us all this time?

Maybe…

Or maybe not…

Let’s get into it and find out together.

What security protections does iOS have in place?

Let’s begin by covering all of the features and functions that Apple has implemented to protect its users from the scum and villainy that scour the internet. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think I managed to cover the main security benefits that iOS offers.

Closed System

The iOS operating system is considered “closed source” meaning that the code base is known only to Apple and is not made available to the general public, preventing application developers from making any changes and giving them limited access to the system and its core components. The proposed benefits of a closed system are that threat actors looking to develop malicious software (malware) are not able to view the source code and therefore they will have a more difficult time finding vulnerabilities to exploit.

Walled Garden

In the lands of iOS Apple plays the role of God and maintains a biblical style Garden of Eden where they maintain strict control over what is and what is not allowed within its confines. What this means in reality is that iPhone users are only allowed to purchase and download apps from its App Store, all of which are manually reviewed and tested before being made available to consumers. Ideally this prevents dodgy developers from creating and selling malicious software to its customers and ensures that iPhone users stay safe from predators seeking to steal their information and hack their devices.

Sandbox architecture

Sandboxing is the practice of isolating apps so that they can only access specified resources and are restricted from accessing the files of other applications or the operating system itself. Essentially what this means in practice is that Apple treats it’s platform like a super high security prison where all apps are kept in solitary confinement to prevent them from stealing or harming other apps. This way if a malicious app manages to sneak into the App Store or an app becomes infected with malware, the damage is limited only to that app and the data stored within all of your other apps remains secure.

However Apple will still allow you to grant apps access to certain resources in your phone like photos or contacts which opens them up to exploitation or theft – so make sure you think twice before granting permission to apps that you don’t trust 100%.

Strong encryption at rest

When you secure your phone with a passcode your device automatically enables “Data Protection” which encrypts the data on your device with AES-256 bit encryption (virtually impenetrable encryption that is used by the US government). This means that if someone steals or somehow gets hold of your phone, there is no way for them to access your data without the passcode.

Regular updates released without delay

Device updates are critical in keeping phones secure as they deliver vital security patches to ensure known vulnerabilities can no longer be exploited. In this area I firmly believe that Apple takes the cake over Android as they regularly release updates and will continue to provide updates for devices for up to 6 – 8 years (Android can be between 2 – 5 years depending on the phone manufacturer). On top of this they release updates to all devices at once without delay, whereas the timeliness of Android update delivery is dependent on the manufacturer of the phone – meaning that if Google releases a security patch for Android, this is not necessarily rolled out to all Android devices immediately. Instead it is up to the phone manufacturer to roll out the patch which could potentially take days if not weeks or months.

Secure Enclave

The Secure Enclave is an impressive addition to the iPhone hardware that provides a separate processor to handle sensitive operations related to security and privacy. The Secure Enclave performs a variety of operations but the main features are that it generates and stores encryption keys as well as handles processes relating to biometric authentication and storing the related data. This means that even if the Application Processor is compromised the attacker still won’t have access to the encryption keys and biometric data stored in the phone.

Small market share

iPhones only make up 28% of the smartphone market and while this is clearly not an inbuilt feature by Apple it does still provide some additional protection to its users by providing less incentive for hackers and malware authors to spend their time finding vulnerabilities in iOS. To put it in perspective, if you were to go fishing and needed to bring in a big haul to feed your family would you go to the spot where 30% of the fish live or the spot where 70% of the fish live?

Lockdown Mode

Apple has created an optional feature called Lockdown Mode that is designed for the minority of users that are at risk of being targeted by sophisticated threat actors (think Nation State actors, aka spies). This feature will disable a bunch of functions which will reduce your threat exposure but also stop your phone from functioning as you would normally expect. This feature is not for everyone but is definitely a nice to have for those people that genuinely need it. To read up on how lockdown mode actually works see here.

And there you have it, from the looks of things the fruit fan boys might be right about their claims that the iPhone platform reigns supreme in the battlefield of smartphone security. The above controls do appear to minimize the vectors of attack by which hackers might try and steal your data or take over your phone

For example…. 

Should you visit a website that hosts malware that’s able to exploit a vulnerability in your browser, it would still be blocked from accessing the phone’s memory due to the application sandboxing. Same story with emails or texts that contain malicious attachments. Should an attacker steal or manage to get hold of your phone itself, they would be prevented from accessing the data it contains due to the encryption at rest (assuming you have set a passcode that they don’t know or can guess) and bolstered further by the Secure Enclave. Should an attacker try and create a malicious app that steals your data, the Apple reviewer should pick this up during their tests and reject it from the App store. And once again should the app somehow get through the review process it will be blocked from accessing your data by the application sandboxing.

Sounds pretty damn good right?

Right?

Is iOS really as secure as Apple claims?

Ok so let’s dig into the weeds now and see what evidence there is to suggest that the security features above might not be as full proof and Apple and its congregation of fruitarians might want us to believe.

Let’s get into it.

XcodeGhost

In terms of sheer numbers the XcodeGhost hack probably takes the cake. Xcode is Apple’s Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) that is used to create apps for its various devices and back in 2015 someone hosted a version of the IDE on Baidu (a Chinese file sharing site) that injected malware into any apps that developers created. This was XcodeGhost.

While normally developers would download Xcode directly from Apple, in China developers experienced very slow download speeds from the Apple site, so instead they often opted to download Xcode from Baidu instead.

The malware that Xcode injected into the apps somehow evaded the detection of the Apple reviewers and it is estimated that up to 4000 infected apps ended up making their way into the App Store and potentially infected upwards of 100 million devices.

Holy Moly

Devices that were infected with this malware would send basic device information as well as the contents of the victims clipboard to a central server.

Watering Hole Attacks

Watering hole attacks are when threat actors target a specific group of people by using a website that they are known to visit in order to compromise their devices.

I was able to find two reported instances of  watering hole attacks being used to hack both iOS and Android devices.

The first was in 2019 when the Uighur people were targeted over a period of two years. Multiple sites that this population of people frequented were used to infect the victims devices by exploiting a series of vulnerabilities that enabled the attackers to inject malware into the Uighur peoples devices without them ever knowing. Once infected the hackers had near total control over the victims phones.

The second instance was in 2021 when a similar attack was used to target the Hong Kong rioters by using selected pro-democracy sites that the rioters frequented. Just like the previous attack an exploit chain was utilized that gave the attackers near total control over the victims devices.

As you can probably guess both attacks appear to be the work of Chinese state sponsored hackers.

Kaspersky Triangulation Attack

In June of 2023 Kaspersky, a cyber security company, discovered that iOS devices used by the company’s staff had been infected with malware that was delivered via a hidden iMessage.

According to Kasperskey once the device was infected “The spyware then quietly transmits private information to remote servers: microphone recordings, photos from instant messengers, geolocation, and data about a number of other activities of the owner of the infected device.”

The firm is unsure of who launched the attack against them and stated that the only way to remove the malware was a complete factory reset of the device (resulting in a loss of the users data).

Pegasus Spyware

Now you may have heard of this one recently because it hit the news big time back in March when it was uncovered that Pegasus was able to infect iOS devices using a zero-click exploit by sending an iMessage to the victim. The exploit was termed zero-click because the victim only had to receive the message to get infected. Once installed Pegasus is reportedly able to run arbitrary code, extract contacts, call logs, messages, photos, web browsing history, settings, as well as gather information from a variety of apps

This spyware has been developed by an Israeli cyber-arms company called the NSO group who sell the software to governments and law enforcement agencies around the world. The company markets this software as a tool to be used against criminals and terrorists, however there is evidence that it has been used to spy on journalists, lawyers, political dissidents, and human rights activists.

While the zero-click iMessage exploit has since been patched by Apple the software has multiple other vectors of attack and NSO will continue to add new exploit chains as required.

Reign Spyware

The Reign spyware is pretty much just a competing product on the “selling spyware to three letter agencies and totalitarian regimes” market. This software is created and maintained by another Israeli cyber-arms company called QuaDream and its flagship software product has also recently been in the news.

In April of this year Microsoft and Citizen lab discovered the spyware had been used to hack at least five individuals including journalists, political opposition figures and a NGO worker using another zero-click exploit that used “invisible iCloud invitations” to inject its malware payload into victims iOS devices.

Once infected the attackers essentially had complete control over the device and could exfiltrate a variety of information as shown in the graphic below.

Bug Bounty trends

Ok the last point I want to get into isn’t about an iOS exploit, but about a company that buys these exploits off security researchers and sells them to governments and cyber-arms firms (like our friends at NSO and QuaDream).

The company is called Zerodium and they host a bug bounty platform that pays big dollars for zero-day exploits for both smartphones (iOS and Android) but also computers and servers (Windows, Linux, Mac).

Historically Zerodium has paid much higher bounties for iOS than it has for Android due to the fact that these exploits were much rarer. However this narrative was flipped in 2019 when Android exploits became more valuable (up to $2.5 million USD) than iOS exploits (up to $2 million USD) reflecting the fact that Google has done a lot of work in addressing Android’s security issues.

This was a massive change in the exploit environment as Android exploits were only paying a maximum of $200K USD just a year before in 2018.

One caveat worth considering however is that Android devices make up 70% of the smartphone market so iOS exploits are still relatively more expensive – however it does demonstrate that the gap has closed substantially between the two smartphone operating systems and it doesn’t lend much credibility towards the idea that iPhones are harder to hack. In fact in May of 2020 the platform paused buying iOS exploits altogether for 3 months because it had too many already.

So what can we take away from this?

To conclude this already too long blog post I want to briefly state my takeaways from this rollercoaster of a journey:

1. iPhones and the iOS operating system are by no means impregnable. In fact it’s clear that if you have enough money you can pay someone like the NSO group for some very potent malware that has a variety of vectors of attack.
2. The fact that Zerodium is paying $2 million plus dollar for both iOS and Android exploits and that most of the attacks mentioned above were carried out by state sponsored groups, it’s clear that the barrier for entry in hacking both iPhones and Android devices is very high. So it is extremely unlikely that your creepy neighbor or a bored pimply faced teenager has the capability to hack your smartphone.

So in conclusion I would say that while your iPhone should be safe from hackers, nothing is certain.

Over and out.

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Have you ever had a stella weekend planned with a party Friday night, maybe some clubbing Saturday night, and then you close it out with a few beers and a barbie (BBQ for those non aussies) with your mates on Sunday – only to then wake up on Monday feeling sick with a flu?

If so, then you my friend know the pain of tanking your immune system in exchange for a weekend of fun.

Our bodies are normally well protected from all the nasty bacteria and viruses looking to wreak havoc on us – but with a few days of excess alcohol consumption, lots of junk food, poor sleep, and maybe even *ahem* some “party enhancers” your immune system weakens and you are suddenly an easy target for all the pathogens being spread around the nightclub.

Well the same story rings true for your computer, if you have weak defenses and spend time browsing some of the sketchier parts of the internet, then it’s only a matter of time before your pc catches something nasty.

On the bright side though, this is a fairly easy problem to fix so let’s get into it.

How do you protect your computer against malware?

To start off with, we need to ensure that our computer’s “immune” system is nice and strong so that it can defend us from threats without us knowing or having to take action.

Do do this we have to focus on two things:

1. Our device
2. And our doorway into the internet, also known as a browser

Let’s get into it

Device safeguards against malware:

• Update, update, update – ensure that all of your devices and applications are kept up to date as these patches often fix security vulnerabilities that put you at risk
• Ensure that your antivirus is enabled (For Windows use Defender Antivirus and for Mac use XProtect)
• Ensure that your firewall is enabled
• Backup your computer – if you accidentally catch a nasty case of ransomware you want to be able to wipe and restore your files and not be at the mercy of some HACKer
• Keep your admin account separate from your main account – this way if an attacker or malware gains access to your account it will have limited permissions and be unable to install more malware, open a command line, make changes to your antivirus or firewall, etc

Browser safeguards against malware:

• Use an adblocker – threat actors often use ads as a way to get you to click on dodgy links that deploy malware
• Disable notifications – similar to ads, threat actors can use notifications to trick users into clicking on malicious links (if you need notifications for work apps like gmail or teams you can whitelist these sites in your browser settings)
• Disable saved passwords (you should be using a password manager instead – if you want to know more join my email list to receive “Hard to Hack” a free guide which covers using a password manager)
• Disable autofill for forms – this one really pains me because I hate typing in my name, address, etc when ordering products online but hackers have developed ways to steal your PI using this feature without you ever knowing (see this github repo), so better safe than sorry I guess

Ok, so now that we have strengthened our computer’s defenses (it’s immune system) we now want to think about how we can limit our exposure to malware to minimize our chances of running into something that can overwhelm or bypass our defenses.

Maybe you are thinking “what the hell is the point of doing all of the above if I still have to worry about getting viruses?” and the answer to that is two fold:

1. New vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications are discovered every single day and there will always be a lag between when that vulnerability is discovered by the bad guys, when it is discovered by the good guys (if it ever is), and when it is fixed with an update – so it is best that you just don’t put yourself at risk in the first place.
2. If the blockbuster movie Troy taught us anything it’s that even the mightiest of defenses cannot protect us from ourselves. And so it is with protection against malware, even if we put all of the above protections in place, by doing something stupid we can still end up with a potentially disastrous infection.

And so with that being said, here are a few principles of good internet hygiene:

• Don’t download and use illegal / pirated software
• Don’t open unsolicited (sent to you without you asking – think random emails or texts) links or files
• Don’t visit dodgy websites (I briefly talked about some signs that you can use to tell if a website is dodgy in my last post)
• If you are unsure about a link or file scan it with an online tool (virustotal is a good one) or scan it with your antivirus (for files and apps)

And there you have it folks, implement these simple controls and principles and you will massively negate your chances of getting your computer infected with malware.

But even with a solid defense and good hygiene you never know what can happen to throw a spanner into the works, so it’s best to be aware of signs of malware in your system.

What are the symptoms of malware and how do you know if you have been infected already?

Diagnosing malware from symptoms is far from an exact science and many sophisticated types of malware produce no symptoms whatsoever, but it’s still worth knowing some of the common signs of malware infection so that you can maximize your chances of taking action before it’s too late.

Common “symptoms” of malware:

• Computer is running slow for no apparent reason – someone could have installed crypto mining malware on your system or something else that is resource intensive
• Antivirus is disabled – this way you can’t remove the malware already in your system and more malware can be installed without you knowing
• Increased internet traffic for no apparent reason – maybe someone is using your computer as part of their botnet
• Getting weird error messages – might be a sign that the malware is trying to run processes that are failing in your system
• New toolbars appear in your browser – honestly not sure if this is even a thing anymore but used to be super common
• Random ad popups start appearing – could be adware that is trying to trick you into clicking on malicious phishing links
• Your browser starts redirecting you to weird pages – likely trying to phish you or get you to install more malware
• Computer is malfunctioning – the malware is poorly written, not optimized to your system, or maybe just designed to break everything
• You can no longer access certain files or folders – this might indicate that you are a victim of a ransomware attack
• Random applications or files have appeared out of nowhere

Now with that being said, what do you do if you think you have a malware infection…

How do you get rid of malware on your computer?

Considering that we live a lot of our lives on our devices nowadays catching a bad case of malware can be a scary thing. It could mean losing your photos, videos, music collection, art work, uni work, business IP, or in other words dozens if not hundreds of hours of our lives and perhaps even hundreds if not thousands of dollars out of our bank accounts.

So if you catch a case of the old computer flu and you want to know what to do, follow the below:

1. Disconnect your computer from the internet immediately
2. If you have backed up all important files, wipe your computer and restore from your backup.
   • How to do this on Windows
   • How to do this on Mac
   • If you do not have a backup of your files continue to the following steps
3. If you have sensitive / important information on your computer and haven’t backed it up or can’t risk it being stolen by your attackers you should bring it to a professional to get their assistance. If this isn’t possible or you don’t believe it to be necessary, continue on to the below steps.
4. Run your native anti-virus and do a complete scan
   • If you are using Windows run an offline scan with Defender
   • If you are using a Mac your best option is to use the Disk Utility tool and run First Aid – check out this video for a great breakdown on how to do this
5. Download Malwarebytes and run an on demand scan
6. Clear your browser cache
7. Reboot your device
8. If you still believe that you have a malware infection then I would advise going to see a professional to help you remove it or wipe your system and start again

Hopefully the above can help you if you get infected with malware but unfortunately there are many cases where the malware is impossible to remove or your files are beyond recovery, so it’s best to always maintain strong cyber defenses and good hygiene.

If you would like to further guard yourself against hackers sign up to my email list below to get my free guide “Hard to Hack: Three simple steps to staying safe online”.

And with that said, may the Almighty Computer Gods preserve thee devices for many years

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