# Smartphone Hacks you need to know about. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205 "2013-07-22T16:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/1 "2013-07-22T16:42:15Z")
Passing this on for smartphone owners. I still use a flip phone that I bought in 2006. The keyboard hack seems like a legit concern. But it’s easily defeated by keeping your phone far away from the computer. > **[5 Terrifying Smartphone Hacks You Won't Believe Are Possible](https://www.cracked.com/article_20345_5-terrifying-smartphone-hacks-you-wont-believe-are-possible.html)** > > The downside of storing your entire world inside an ass-pocket-dwelling supercomputer is that there are always those who are itching to turn that technology against you in ways you'd never expect. I’m surprised that a charger station could hack a phone. I’ve got a background in electronics. A charger just ties directly into the battery circuit. The power circuity and data are/should be totally separate. Unless the IPhone is doing weird stuff I haven’t heard about. Which is possible. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/2 "2013-07-22T16:58:45Z")
#2 (fake “cell tower” hardware) may well work on plain cell phones. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/3 "2013-07-22T17:01:34Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m surprised that a charger station could hack a phone. I’ve got a background in electronics. A charger just ties directly into the battery circuit. The power circuity and data are/should be totally separate. Unless the IPhone is doing weird stuff I haven’t heard about. Which is possible. 😉 I don’t know jack about iPhones, but the charger on an Android phone is just a USB cable which plugs into an electric jack at one end, and can just as easily be plugged into a PC for charging/file transfer. I can imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to set up a charging station with ready-installed USB cables to plug your phone into, which then proceeds to access your phone’s data. But then again, this is Cracked we’re talking about, and in my experience their accuracy when it comes to reporting these kinds of things is somewhere between the Daily Mail and the Weekly World News, so I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/4 "2013-07-22T17:06:46Z")
PlaceRaider seems like such a useful thing for building 3D models. There’s no need to bury it inside a piece of malware. I want it in the open so I can make a model of my own room! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/5 "2013-07-22T17:09:41Z")
And the contactless-card scanner? Keep in mind that it’s scanning US contactless cards, which simply broadcast replicas of the unencrypted data on the magstripes of US cards. They contain none of the EMV encryption and handshaking used by other contactless cards in other countries. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/6 "2013-07-22T23:05:24Z")
There’s a grain of truth in these, but also a bunch of sensationalism. And there’s a world of difference between “it’s technically possible, with enough effort” and “this has a reasonable chance of happening to you.” For instance - I’m not aware of any way the cell phone tower can actually turn my microphone on. They could make the party on the other end think I’ve answered the call, or they can try to intercept the call…but my phone isn’t set up to auto answer. The network (or fake network) can’t force that. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/7 "2013-07-23T07:05:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m surprised that a charger station could hack a phone. I’ve got a background in electronics. A charger just ties directly into the battery circuit. The power circuity and data are/should be totally separate. Unless the IPhone is doing weird stuff I haven’t heard about. Which is possible. 😉 It works because the charger is really a small computer. That’s why you need something to analyze USB ports, like this: > **[(Crowdfunding) USB charger analyzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=696755)** > > Problem: With the huge range of USB chargers available and their various power ratings, how do you know which is the best one for your device? How do you know your charger is really fast-charging your device? How do you know which chargers are... ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smartphone-hacks-you-need-to-know-about/664205/8 "2013-07-23T10:55:51Z")
Thanks for linking to clickbait I guess. Next do we get to hear about “This one WEIRD trick discovered by a _mom_ that big \ hates?”