Hello EFers,

Last Friday my email was "compromised" as I was trying to send a photo I had on my phone to my yahoo mail. ALL of my contacts received a different message with a different link - but not my original email with attached photo. All were one sentence messages with a link - some with language I would not use. Quite embarrasing, to say the least. I immediately changed my password of my email, ran scans on my computers, informed Yahoo of the situation and apologized to my contacts. The good thing was catching up with those I had lost contact with.

I have an Android and use Sunrise - which I also informed of the misshap, although no support was offered.

Questions:

1. Has anyone else experienced something similar here in CH?
2. Does anyone have any knowledge of a good anti-virus, internet security software that works well with smart phones, non-Iphones? ( I heard Apple products supposedly have another security system)

Also, any additional advice concerning this is also apreciated.

Gaebigirl

It could be that your Yahoo email was compromised, perhaps not related at all to your mobile phone or service.

Hacking into the email account can reveal all your contacts.

Hi JRSPET,

My Yahoo account was compromised (read: hacked) through my smartphone. It happened just as I was sending myself an email with the picture. It was the first time I had ever emailed myself a picture with the phone - believe it or not. I usually download them. The notifications on my phone went wild as I was organizing my email just as I clicked on my own address within yahoo. I also received one of these messages and then a few seconds later I received my initial message, the one with the picture.

It seems to me my account was hacked through my smartphone.

I hear "Lookout Security" has a good and free Android anti-virus. Look for it in the Android Market.

If I were you I would back-up your contact info, and in the Settings, go to "Privacy" and do a "Factory Reset" to wipe-out any junk on your phone.

Thanks for your reply Esto.

Question: if I click on the "back up my data" and "Automatic restore" then click on "Factory data reset" do I loose the backed up info? What is the order I should do this?

Thanks for the help.

I really didn't know that there were apps for security & virus protection, Esto. The best is that they are free! Hopefully they work well....

Thanks for the recomendation.

I'm not convinced your fone has been compromised but if it has, it's via a rogue app.

Here's what I'd do:
Make a list of apps installed and then uninstall them from the phone
Change! my! Yahoo! password! and! recovery! questions!
Nuke the phone back to factory. Your data is likely stored on the SD card
Reactivate the phone and start loading your apps back slowly

I don't quite understand your initial post. You were trying to send the picture to all of your friends? Was this from an app and you were using the SendTo function? Or was it just a coincidence in time and space?

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the advice. I didn't think about an ap being the problem, which it could be.

I was only trying to send myself a (work related) photo from my phone to my Yahoo account. I pushed the "share" to yahoo. As I went to send it to myself (through the contact list), my phone went nuts making all kinds of racket. It was from the notifications of returned email from many of my contacts - those whose email were no longer in use. As I went to my email to check if I received my photo, I noticed I had not only many returned emails but also one to myself - a one line statement with a link. MANY of these one liners were sent to the valid emails.I soon received phone calls and emails from my contacts questioning me about the email as well as those getting in contact with me after a long time of non-contact. (You would not believe how many people actually click on what I would consider a suspicious email).

It is VERY coincidential that all this happened at the moment I went to send it to my yahoo account. Noisy too.

The previous day I had experienced a problem with the photo gallery that would "close" due to an error when I was trying to look at the pictures. I guess I should of taken that as a hint that something was wrong with my phone, but alas did not.

All of the yahoo info has been changed and reported. I just downloaded an app for security. I guess I will have to set it back to factory setting. Should I download all the pictures to my computer first?

It in times like these that I was a wee bit more tech oriented!

It was hacked then since ALL of my contact from yahoo were sent a message....

Hey Frank,

Just looked at the factory reset - it will erase all data from phone including google account, system and application data and setting, downloaded applications. But it will not erase current system software and bundled applications, SD card files such as music or photos.

I guess I answered my own question. Live & Learn, I guess..

Smart phones now are where PC's were in the mid-late 90's. Since the Android Market is a free-for-all (ie: anyone can put apps there and they aren't checked by anyone) you really need to choose your apps carefully. If an app as alot of downloads and a good 4 or 5 star rating, it should probably be safe. ALso when you install the app, look at what permissions it asks for. If a calculator or something simple is asking for permission to dial your phone, then that app may well be a virus.

If you are not very "tech savy" maybe look into getting an iPhone, as all apps in the Apple market are heavily scrutinized and vetted, so lees chance of viruses there.

As I understand it, what happened was that you clicked the send to yahoo. The phone made a connection to yahoo, then you got loads of notifications from yahoo.

With my phone, I don't receive emails immediately. But if I send an email, I will receive at that point any new emails I've received since the last check for new mail.

This may explain the coincidence. You need to check when the fake emails were actually sent. Did your contacts receive the fake emails with timestamps the same as your photo email? If yes, then your phone is compromised. If no, then your yahoo account is compromised.

I can't think of a mechanism whereby your phone became compromised as you clicked send.

If you log into yahoo mail from your computer, there is a link under your account settings that shows logins to yahoo mail and where they originated. That might also show you when your mail was hijacked.
I had an issue with yahoo mail as well that was sending strange mail from my account to my contacts. I checked the logins and it was logged in from isreal and spain, neither of which I was in at the time. I changed my password and have not had any issues since then.

This is true. There is also a secondary sign in verification that is being tested and configure which apps can access yahoo mail

TW44, I just checked the logins - everything corresponds to me, so I guess it was an app that caused it. Password was changed once I noticed the problems as well doing complete scans and notifications (yahoo, contacts, Sunrise). I also just implemented a "safe seal" for my yahoo account the one that I have used for the past 12 years and NEVER had a problem, until now.

I appreciate the help.

It is possible that you have downloaded some malware via an app on your phone but it is not likely when you are using the standard applications that are part of the OS (i.e. photos). It is also very unlikely that you have a virus on your phone, albeit also possible.

In my opinion you should first change the password on your yahoo account and then reset your phone to factory defaults and then install the apps you need via the android market.

In the Yahoo app on your phone make sure that you go into the "options" and choose "use SSL" (look for this option in any app that you put your password into.

I would also suggest that you use different username & password combinations for the sites and applications that you use most –and do not use the same password for social & banking sites.

Nowadays as we are more and more connected it makes it easier and easier to hack our data –in theory (and in practice) someone can be within several meters of you and scan your unsecured data transfers from your phone (or home wifi) and use the data for their own purposes.

The best bet is to make sure that you use the security measures in software whenever they are provided.

The same issue can happen with any phone that has internet access, so an iphone or Nokia would still have the same problem.

Hi NotAllThere,

I checked both mails (fake and real). They had the same time stamp. So I guess it was an app. I just wish I could figure out which one. I am following the recommendations I have been receiving - which basically is to clear it all out (after physically downloading my picures) and re-boot to factory settings, then downloading new apps.

Nothing like spring cleaning a bit early....

Can you clarify this a bit? (For the tech-challenged, like me?)

Hi Surfpowder,


In response to your comments:

I noticed a problem with my photo gallery the day before when it kept closing when I was trying to look at the album. Unfortunately I did not take the time to check it out and fix it.

I changed the password immediately and (hopefully) took all the steps necesary. I am now resetting the phone to factory setting. I have only used the Android market - for freebees I thought were ok choosing those with the most stars.

I disconnected the yahoo app immediately as well. When I re-install I will use the "SSL" option - good idea.

As for passwords: I have always used different ones as you suggested - and clean out the cache after Ebanking.

We use a firewall on our closed system here at home for the 6 computers we use.

Not only are security measures the best prevention, but to also try to think one step ahead. We have to renew our software in a week. The security gap was on my phone was discussed 1 day before the attack. sigh....

I really thought the iphones had better protection for use between the apple products. Now I don't feel so bad for not having one.