iPad Hacks

[Midpack]

Apple devices used to suffer less (than Win or Android) from hackers, viruses, etc. - but they seem to be catching up. I never used to get these (below), but I’m getting several each week, and I have to clear Safari to get rid of them. I avoid Google as much as possible, so I suspect it doesn’t have anything to do with Google.

Anyone know where they come in and/or a good defense?

And I’m getting several same area code/prefix calls from bad actors every day now too. I don’t answer of course, but that never used to happen. Not an Apple defect though, any phone number/device.

I wonder how many people are making a dishonest living as hackers and phone scammers these days? Ain’t technology grand.

 

[W2R]

My defense is to never put anything on my iPad or phone that I wouldn't post publicly on a billboard. I mostly use my iPad to play games, and mostly use my phone for phone calls.

I only log into financial sites from one machine and it is fairly well protected. I do not think any device is completely safe, though.

I get spam phone calls from my prefix, like you do. I never click on anything in an email, even if I think I know who sent it.

 

[TimeMeasure]

Maybe have just been lucky, but have never gotten those pop-ups. And although no software or device is perfect, I believe iOS is still significantly superior to Windows or Android in terms of security, both of the operating system and the software ecosystem.

For what it's worth, what we do on our Apple devices is:

1 - Keep the setting turned on to block pop-ups in Safari:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987
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2 - Use the 1Blocker content blocker

This is an excellent ad blocker which you can download from the App Store.
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Then again, maybe it helps that all the web sites I visit are fairly vanilla, and it also helps to be a dinosaur who only uses antisocial media: email, paper, etc. No Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest or Snapchat or whatever the current fad is.

It's probably unlikely, but there's also a chance that those symptoms could result from a compromised wireless router. You can do a quick check:

https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/router-checker
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Think you said you already cleared cache on Safari, but that would not hurt either.

 

[Sunny]

What you are experiencing are pop ups, which are likely triggered by the site you are visiting or rogue ads on a site, and not an iPad hack, nor even the iPads fault. If your iPad was truly hacked you should be a lot more concerned about getting that fixed than just stopping bad pop ups.

As to prevent them, try what TimeMeasure linked to. That page also has hints on what to do when a bad pop up gets rid of your address bar/etc so you don’t have to kill Safari (touch top of screen, don’t click on the fake buttons, etc. )

 

[audreyh1]

I’m seeing Amazon Gift Card pop ups in Safari - from sites I rarely visit, so I just back out. It’s usually from clicking on a link from a news related search.

Sites that can’t keep themselves clean - bleeeech!

Thanks for the info TimeMeasure