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Hacking My Mother’s Phone to Save Her Memories
- kennyadam 7y agoWeird title. They never managed to get in to the phone. They just took the SIM out and put it in another phone to use 2FA SMS codes, along with logins they found written down.
- Maximus9000 7y agoIMO hacking is getting into a system by any means. Ultimately they were going after the "memories" which were all stored on the cloud. They needed to get into that. They determined they didnt need to get into the phone in order to get into the cloud.
- fossuser 7y agoExcept they didn't get access to iMessage or other things encrypted locally on the device.
- LannisterDebt 7y agoI thought iCloud contents were all encrypted? No one else, not even Apple, can access end-to-end encrypted information [1] [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303
- RandomGuyDTB 7y ago>"Hacking my Mother's Phone" I agree with your definition of hacking but the explicit goal was to get into their mother's phone, which they didn't. Ultimately they achieved their goal, yes, but via a different method than the one they originally attempted.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- the_snooze 7y agoI'd feel a bit weirded out at the prospect of someone going through my digital records after I pass. Not so much for my own embarrassment (I'd be too dead to feel that, after all), but to protect the trust and confidentiality of everyone I've communicated with.
- admax88q 7y agoOn the other hand it would be super interesting if we _could_ get in to people's data maybe several generations after they've passed. Imagine what historians could learn about what life was like hundreds of years ago if those people left the same digital footprints that we're creating today.
- JimProuty 7y agoSee the "Lasting Impressions" episode from "The Orville" which involves exactly that plot. Pretty good episode, actually.
- QuercusMax 7y agoThe Orville (especially season 2, but really from ~Ep 4 onward) is actually a really solid series. I'm a big fan; after the second season it's really more like "TNG with minor Seth McFarlane moments" than "Family Guy does Star Trek".
- wccrawford 7y agoBut also imagine all the wannabe journalists that would just do character assassinations on long-dead people revered as heroes for a quick buck and some internet fame. They would completely ignore all the harm it would do. Worse, there would be those that would do that same thing with plenty of intent to cause harm, especially to the groups they are prejudiced against. It's the problems from the "right to be forgotten", but taken to the next level.
- 781 7y ago> But also imagine all the wannabe journalists that would just do character assassinations on long-dead people revered as heroes That's an easy one. Pretty much anyone of notice living today will be labeled a "savage meat eater" and canceled. They will say "many people were already vegan, why was he/she still eating meat? Clearly a monster. Cancel"
- aaron695 7y agoWe need a TV show like horders, about digital horders. We need to learn to lose things again. We have many orders of magnitude of info about everything compared to our past history. We have enough. One photo, is enough. Most people in history and the poor today have less. Learn to live in the present with the people you love.
- joshstrange 7y agoI wonder how long (if ever) it will be until we have really good mechanisms for handling digital affairs after death. 1Password has the emergency kit [0] which I really should fill out and store alongside a will but I would need to write one of those first. It's just something that seems so.... antiquated? That's not the right word but writing a will feels like it will involve talking to a lawyer and not be cheap/easy. Does anyone have any good resources for setting up a will (also a living will if possible) through some software/service? I don't really want to trust my will to some startup but I'd use a product that put all the legalese together and I could just hand a binder to a lawyer or shove it in a security deposit box or something like that. [0] https://support.1password.com/emergency-kit/ https://support.1password.com/emergency-kit/
- rjohnk 7y agoI've been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. While I hope to be around for awhile yet, I'm getting things ready for my wife to take over our digital life. Setting things up for easy backup and retrieval, ect. One of the things I've started is a Word document with instructions on how to backup, what to do if the computer crashes, how to handle 1Password, what subscriptions are important ect. It'll be printed out and put in the safe. My opinion is modern generations are woefully unprepared for how to handle our digital stuff when we pass. Whereas before we had physical photos, video cassettes, ect. that were easily handled, now everything is digital, sometimes just on phones.
- mceachen 7y agoHaving the physical photos still didn't mean we saved the context and relevance surrounding those images. I've got boxes of photos from my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. For the most part, they don't have dates or captions. If I don't recognize a face, it's just random imagery that are, for the most part, just noise to my generation. If we knew why something was relevant, that'd be a different story. If you can record your voice and retell the story behind an image, that could be golden to the people in your life. I only captured a couple of these recordings (just using my cell phone to record), and they're wonderful to listen to.
- turkeytotal 7y agoThis story is another testament to the dangers of using SMS as second factor.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- williamscales 7y agoPhysical security keys seem nice here. If I am taken out by a bus my master password and backup security key can be used to get in to everything.
- larrik 7y agoWhat happens if they get destroyed in the bus accident? Or you go missing entirely (lost at sea)?
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y agoBackup security key implies that there are two, and he already plans for the primary one to be lost.
- mholt 7y agoNot quite what I expected when I clicked on this, but anyway. I would never treat my phone as my only copy of my data. I don't consider phone storage to be permanent OR a backup. If you're into preserving your memories that are locked into your online services and apps like Google Photos, Facebook, Twitter, etc, I've started a project called Timeliner which downloads your data to your own home computers: https://github.com/mholt/timeliner https://github.com/mholt/timeliner - I run it on a cron every week.
- fletchowns 7y agoCool project! I think there is definitely a need for something like this. I've achieved something similar by syncing Google Photos to Google Drive (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6093613 https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6093613) and then using Google Drive for Windows to sync to my local computer, and then run restic periodically to store snapshots in Backblaze B2. It sounds like timeliner would make that a little easier, with some more powerful capabilities.
- mceachen 7y agoIt looks like timeliner requires your phone's files to be uploaded to a third party cloud beforehand. If you want to directly backup files from your phone to your home computer or NAS, https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ and https://www.resilio.com/individuals-sync/ https://www.resilio.com/individuals-sync/ have android, iOS, desktop, and NAS support. It's what I've been recommending to PhotoStructure's beta users, and both seem to work well.
- aspenmayer 7y agoCan you link to iOS version of Syncthing? Main page doesn't link to it.
- mceachen 7y agoHuh, I could have sworn there was, but I don't see it there, either. On iOS I've only used Resilio Sync, fwiw.
- zrail 7y agoIn a related vein, I created a thing called VMSave a few years ago to let people easily save outgoing voicemail messages, something that the carriers make significantly harder than it should be. It’s saved almost 15,000 messages so far. https://vmsave.petekeen.net https://vmsave.petekeen.net
- docker_up 7y agoAfter going through my dad's computer while trying to fix it for him, I realized that there are a lot of things I really don't want to know about my parents. Everything I know about them is enough. Digging through their texts, their browsing history, their emails, etc is not fair in my opinion, and better left unread.
- sebazzz 7y agoAgreed. My father is currently fighting multiple myeloma. The treatment will have a risky phase in hospital where his immune system will be rebuild. He is, in preparation, currently organizing a packet of information and passwords (Keepass) which I need if the worst thing would happen. The rest I will respectfully erase. And I hope my relatives will do the same for me.
- jorgesborges 7y agoThis sort of experience is fundamental to developing an appreciation for privacy. It just feels bad on a pretty basic level to have your privacy violated, or to uncover things you weren't supposed. Here's my two big transformative privacy moments. I'm fifteen and talking online with various strangers from all over the world, as one did at the time, and one night at 3am one of my closest friends calls me as a joke. It was an older man from a different country. My mom answers, freaks out, and wakes up my dad who comes into my room and drags me away from the computer and asks who the hell is calling for me at this hour. I tell my dad it's a friend. He asks me who. I tell him his internet handle and my dad calms down, tells my mom it's okay, and sends me to bed. What I put together later and through similar experiences was that my dad had already vetted the guy. He knew everything I was doing and saying to people. Everything. It took me a long time to understand he was a nervous, technically-minded parent navigating a new aspect of parenting in the early 2000s. But the feeling of paranoia and violation lingered. The second experience was being an insecure teenager and accessing people's emails and msn conversations. The things I learned were things I didn't want to learn, and weren't fair for me to know, and they just made me feel bad, untrusting, and slimy. But I'm grateful to have learned that early in life. I don't care about other people's emails or texts. I have zero interest or inkling to go through anyone's phone or data out of a basic level of understanding and respect for privacy.
- smtalha1 7y agoClap Clap
- somerandomness 7y agoOne takeaway: always put a PIN on your SIM card?
- koala_man 7y agoDon't use SMS based 2FA. NIST recommends against it because it's so easy to hijack.
- somerandomness 7y agoIs it easy to break a SIM pin?
- organsnyder 7y agoWhat about taking control of the phone number itself? Unauthorized porting can probably be accomplished with a bit of social engineering.
- cooldude420 7y agoThat’s why I think hard drives and passwords should become more widespread in wills
- jacquesm 7y agoThere are some pretty explicit instructions as to what should happen to my digital stuff after I pass away, no need for any of my offspring to go digging around in there. If there is anything that I think they need to know I'll be sure to give it to them firsthand.
- mirimir 7y agoSeeing the title, I thought it'd be about Mom who dropped her phone, had a stroke, or whatever. And was still alive. That'd be sweet. But for dead Mom? That's just plain creepy. Those kids might have learned all sorts of things that, in retrospect, they would have wished they hadn't. As in, for example, who their real Dad was. Me, all of my machines and backups are full-disk encrypted (LUKS). With >64 character passphrases. So my memories will die with me. Except for those that I share online, anyway. And I do plan, as I get older, to share more freely. Given that there'll be less time to find me.
- DigitalTerminal 7y agoCan’t stand to read this. The parts of a person’s story they’ve chosen to keep private are the parts most likely to get interpreted and twisted—fragile, subjective, even mutable truths they’ve chosen to hold private. That choice is sacred. Shame on those who trespass.
- elvecinodeabajo 7y agoThere's no reason to snoop on a dead person's personal data. It's a backstab to privacy. Nothing to be proud of.