Facebook user Jenell San Antonio was horrified when it seemed like her phone had a mind of its own — the touch screen was unresponsive, but someone seems to be trying to type a passcode. It left her with an important lesson: Be cautious about connecting to public Wi-Fi, something all of us do on a daily basis. What else can we learn from her traumatizing experience?

A phone with a mind of its own

“My phone was hacked earlier today! I don’t know how it was hacked but theory of many is that being connected to public Wi-Fi is the reason,” San Antonio began the post.

Based on the videos San Antonio included, it seemed as if a hacker had remote access and was trying to guess the password. It even opened the phone’s camera at one point. “Tinatry ka niyang picturan!” said San Antonio’s friend. “Oo para pang Face ID,” agreed their other friend.

Thankfully, they were able regain access after many attempts and was able to turn the phone off. But when they tried to turn it on again, the Face ID was already changed.

“So, I disabled that nalang and then changed ALL my passwords. And good thing, my bank accounts were not compromised,” said San Antonio.

“Grabe. Black Mirror thangs! And we all thought iPhone or Apple would be more secure,” they added.

Avoid connecting to public Wi-Fi

For San Antonio, the lesson is simple: Never connect to public Wi-Fi. “So, never na daw mag connect sa public Wi-Fi! As far as I remember, I was automatically connected to a mall’s wifi,” said San Antonio.

Although public Wi-Fi is a great and convenient service, it does undeniably come with a load of dangers. Antivirus software Norton warns of man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, “a form of eavesdropping” where attackers get to access data transmissions, even private ones. Public Wi-Fi is also unencrypted which is “much easier for a scammer to get ahold of your web traffic and use it for nefarious activities like MITM attacks.”

Theory: Ghost touch?

While many agreed that San Antonio might be a victim of hacking, others also believe it could’ve been a case of Ghost Touch, a moment where it looks like the screen is operating by itself. Plenty of smartphone users have already experienced this scary occurrence. Thankfully, there are easy fixes which include force restarting the phone, factory resetting the phone, and clearing apps in the background.

What do you think of this incident? Was it a hacking or a simple case of ghost touch?

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