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Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

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bungeejumper
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Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149392

Postby bungeejumper » July 2nd, 2018, 9:14 am

I am a walking Bluetooth dead zone. They ought to call it blacktooth, I have so many gaps. The longest I've ever managed to stay connected with anything was 30 seconds, and I've tried my best to live with the realisation that I've got as much chance of making this simple connection as a blind man has of completing the Times crossword. Sigh, it's just not meant to be. :(

But alas, a new satnav has forced me to give it another go with bluetoothing my mobile. So there I was in a café last week, trying to get the pairing done. The TomTom satnav could recognise the Windows phone but it couldn't pair, presumably because the phone couldn't 'see' the satnav. (They were lying next to each other on the table.)

What I could see on my phone, however, was that I was already paired with a Sony phone! Now, I don't have a Sony anything, and I have certainly never tried to pair with one. So what was going on there? Could a stranger have successfully paired with my phone, without my knowledge or approval - and if so, what would he/she have been able to access on my phone? Or could it simply have been the wifi hub in the corner of the room?

BJ

Postscript: I finally managed to pair the satnav with the phone at home, at the eighth attempt. For the time being! :lol: But my confidence in the security of Bluetooth-anything has generally taken a bit of a knock. Am I just being paranoid? TIA for all suggestions.
Moderator Message:
Moved from DAK to Computers, TVs & Phones (leaving a link) because this is the natural habitat of the right sort of geek to answer this. - Chris

Infrasonic
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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149422

Postby Infrasonic » July 2nd, 2018, 10:27 am

What mobile?
Model name/number + operating system name and version number(Android/iOS/Windows?)

bungeejumper
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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149426

Postby bungeejumper » July 2nd, 2018, 10:37 am

Infrasonic wrote:What mobile?
Model name/number + operating system name and version number(Android/iOS/Windows?)

Microsoft Lumia 535 on Windows 8.1. This is now an abandoned model, so it doesn't surprise me very much that I've had difficulty with pairing it. (Although my previous Samsung Android was just as susceptible to my black-thumbs syndrome.) Got there in the end, anyway.

I'm just more concerned about the fact that somebody was apparently able to pair with my phone without my approval. Is that normal, and what could they have done with the connection?

BJ

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149443

Postby Infrasonic » July 2nd, 2018, 11:36 am

I generally have everything possible turned off wrt to Bluetooth (I've never really trusted it...), although I did pair it to my PC when I bought that, so if I turn BT on, all that is 'paired' is my PC, everything else is 'available' devices that it can see but can't auto pair with without my manual intervention.

That's on Android 6.0.1 though, so it may be different settings for your W8.1 phone, as will be what can be accessed once a device is paired.
It's a networking protocol so potentially could have access to files/documents etc that you'd rather it didn't.
Purely a guess but I would imagine somewhere in settings you could make it so that only manual pairing with your express permission can be done, rather than auto pairing?

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149444

Postby tjh290633 » July 2nd, 2018, 11:40 am

On my android phone Bluetooth sometimes seems to turn itself on of its own accord, and I promptly turn it off again. Are you paired with any other device?

I use Google Maps if I need satnav, and have no need to pair.

TJH

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149447

Postby GrandOiseau » July 2nd, 2018, 11:44 am

From an article I googled:
Turn off your phone's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Hackers are religious about this. Keeping these features "on" all the time makes it easy for strangers to slip into your phone.

The problem? If you keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth active, hackers can see what networks you've connected to before, spoof them and trick your phone into connecting to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices that hackers carry around.

Once connected to your phone, hackers can bombard your device with malware, steal data or spy on you. And you won't even notice.

So, turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you need them. Turn them off when you don't.


And here is another thread.

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149522

Postby Slarti » July 2nd, 2018, 4:08 pm

bungeejumper wrote: Or could it simply have been the wifi hub in the corner of the room?


Bluetooth and wifi are 2 different technologies and it is not usual for a wifi hub to have Bluetooth. And if I had a public one with it, it wouldn't be turned on.

I think that you can have multiple devices paired, but only one working at a time. So I have my car paired to my phone, for the hands free and music player functions, together with the sound box for the TV, but I can only access one of them at a time.

Oh and if something is paired, it is usual to be able to delete it, I had to do this with my soundbox after an app update.


Also, unless actually in use, I keep wifi and bluetooth turned off, both for security and power saving reasons.

Slarti

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149539

Postby Urbandreamer » July 2nd, 2018, 5:40 pm

Slarti wrote:I think that you can have multiple devices paired, but only one working at a time. So I have my car paired to my phone, for the hands free and music player functions, together with the sound box for the TV, but I can only access one of them at a time.

Slarti


I suspect that you meant one OF THE SAME SORT of device.
I know that in the past I have had a bluetooth speaker and a seperate remote control to stop and start the music connected at the same time.

I haven't yet checked if the sat-nav, reciever plugged into the radio aux and handsfree bluetooth play nicely together.

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149665

Postby Slarti » July 3rd, 2018, 11:54 am

Urbandreamer wrote:
Slarti wrote:I think that you can have multiple devices paired, but only one working at a time. So I have my car paired to my phone, for the hands free and music player functions, together with the sound box for the TV, but I can only access one of them at a time.

Slarti


I suspect that you meant one OF THE SAME SORT of device.
I know that in the past I have had a bluetooth speaker and a seperate remote control to stop and start the music connected at the same time.

I haven't yet checked if the sat-nav, reciever plugged into the radio aux and handsfree bluetooth play nicely together.


Actually I meant exactly what I typed, because if I've got connected to the soundbox my son's phone can't and vice versa.
But that may just be the sound box and the only other thing I use it for is connecting to the car which is turned off if I am using the soundbox. ;)

Slarti

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Re: Bluetooth - have I been hacked?

#149670

Postby Infrasonic » July 3rd, 2018, 12:26 pm

Bluetooth routers do exist for anyone that needs that sort of BT functionality.


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