Forum hacking [Solved]

If I was talking to a user on a forum similar to this one through private message. I was using my cell phone to communicate with the forum. He knows a lot about computers and writing codes and I was wondering if it was possible for him to hack into my phone since I'm using it to communicate with him through the forum ?

The short answer is no.   The long answer is it depends on what information you gave him.

 

When you are talking with him through PM's, you are communicating through the forum software.  He cannot "see" you and you can't "see" him.  The forum software gives him no information about you.  If you email or text message with him… alot of information is transmitted.  The forum software protects you from that.  He can't even tell what computer/phone/device you are using.  You could use a different device to respond to him 10 different times and he wouldn't be able to tell that you changed.

 

Even if he knows alot about writing code, and he had some malicious code he wanted to transmit to you, he would have to send you the code and you would have to open/download/run it.

 

If you provided him with personal information in your PM, then that could be different.  I'd say your risk is extremely small as cell phones are pretty secure.  Granted, nothing is perfect but it's all about minimizing the risk.

I think I have emailed him before but never did anything with my cell. I emailed him through my cell. Could he access my phone that way. I doubt it but didn't really know now days.

Probably not as you still went through your email client.  Email headers contain quite a bit of information though.  I don't know a whole bunch about what all can be gleaned from it.  I suspect that he would be able to tell that an email came from a cell phone, but not the number or anything.

So he wouldn't get any valuable hacking data from it I take it

shouldn't.  As I said, phones protect themselves pretty well.  If you don't open attachments or download and open files from your email… you aren't likely to get infected with anything… so there is very little risk of something sending information back to the other party that would allow them access into your system.  It is much easier to hack into your email account than it is to get into your system

 

That is not to say it can't be done… but as opposed to what you see on TV shows, there are very few people who can actually pull it off and it would take alot of effort.  If you find something "weird" going on with your phone, then perhaps you should become concerned.

 

So, at this point I must ask… what happened in your exchanges that has gotten you concerned?

Nothing major he is incredibly smart on that thing. And it just made me wonder if he just played around with hacking like that. I believe he sent me links on the forum to web pages that I clicked on but never email

May I ask what forum you were at?  Or what the topic it was you were seeking help with.

 

If you and I were working together hear to remove malware from your computer… I would give you links where you can download tools we would use to see what is going on.  Then, in most cases, we would use those tools, or download others from links I would give you, to make changes to your system to remove unwanted programs, etc.  It is even possible that I would make a batch file or a registry script that I would ask you to download and run.

 

There is always a risk involved when you open a web page.  The risk gets slightly higher if you download something inert like a picture.  Risk goes up if you download something that runs like a movie.  And, of course, the risk factor jumps considerably if you download and run a program or script.  You can magnify the risk by 100 fold if you are downloading torrents, warez, pirated programs, or porn.  If you dabble in those parts of the world weird web… you will get infected, the only question is when and my experience when it comes to torrents - you might get lucky the first time but I would be completely shocked if you were clean on the third.

 

Here is my point.  Most of what we do in life revolves around minimizing risks.  We can never totally eliminate it.  On the computer, what you do with it is one factor, and then that risk is multiplied by where you do it at.  For example, downloading Microsoft Security Essentials from Microsofts site carrys very little risk.  Downloading Kaspersky Anti-Virus.hacked.kegen.exe from Shady Torrents.com will almost certainly guarantee some nefarious activity on your system.  If, again, I were here seeking help to remove malware from your system, I would send you places to download stuff and have you run it.  You don't know me and probably would not know anything about the programs I asked you to run or, perhaps, even the site I sent you to to download it.  I would assure you that everything is on the up and up… but, again, you don't know me so there is risk involved.  If I sent you a script to run or had you create one under my directions, you probably wouldn't know what it was doing.  The fact is I could be doing something malicious to your computer.  Honestly I would never do anything to harm you… but if I was going to do something to mess you up… I'd say the same thing.  Therefore it comes down to trust - and only you can decide who to trust, usually with little information.  My advice is to stick with reputable sites and reserve your trust for authorized personnel at those sites when it comes to downloading things.

 

So to come full circle, I'm asking about what site you were at so that I can offer my opinion (if I know anything about them) as to what I believe the risk multiplier might be.

He wasn't working on my computer he just gave me a link to an article to read. I'm not sure the exact forum but it was a legit forum. He wasn't trying to diagnose my computer we were just discussing malware

Ok.  Then I believe your risk to be infinitesimally small.

 

If it was a legitimate malware removal forum, I probably am aware of them and there is a good chance I even know your helper.  We are a fairly small community… even though it seems like there are lots of forums.

Yes there are a lot of forums out there haha

So… is there anything more I can do for you?

I have an iPhone and that's the only device I use to check my email. I decided to look at my recent activity and seen there are a couple different ip addresses and different browsers. I do have the mail app on the iPhone where my account is set up through. Some of the browsers say iOS which is iPhone the other says Windows exhcange active sync. Could this be my mail app? Also it has different locations some out of state? Any insight

There is only 2 ip listed. One for iOS and one for the active sync app which I guess could be my mail app?

Probably.  To the best of my knowledge, if you have a corporate email account that utilizes Microsoft Exchange or Exchange server… then you would need Active Sync to interface.