Real-time lessons: hacker shows the importance of turning off Bluetooth at large events

With the constant use of cell phones and the connectivity of the digital age in which we live, these devices have become true extensions of our lives.

The migration of content to the digital environment has boosted concerns about the security and privacy of data, generally contained in smartphones. Lack of care with third-party access can lead to major problems, often without us being aware of the hacker invasion, as they occur silently.

Sometimes, the error that allows these cybercriminals to enter occurs on the part of the user himself, who leaves applications open, cell phones without passwords and even with sharing options, such as bluetoothalways activated.

It was with this human error in mind that a hacker decided to give a practical lesson to all convention participants!

Event participants have their cell phones hacked as an example of security

Photo: Aleksey H/Shutterstock

Disabling Bluetooth on our smartphones is not always as simple as it seems. You might think that simply turning it off would solve the problem, but in reality, this only disables some functions, leaving others active and vulnerable.

By disabling it this way, your smartphone continues to search for devices to connect to. Even Apple products do not escape this practice, such as AirPods and Apple TV, as well as services such as AirTag and Find My.

That’s exactly where the hackers find the necessary opening to infiltrate. This is how Jae Bochs, a researcher and hacker, managed to teach a lesson to all the members of DEF CON in Las Vegas.

The collective invasion

While event participants were distracted at the venue, Bochs impressively demonstrated the danger of leaving Bluetooth active unnecessarily.

With a simple device costing 70 euros (around R$370 in current direct conversion), Jae was able to access several iPhones, posing as an Apple TV.

Using someone else’s Bluetooth, the hacker started a wave of notifications that reached all users’ phones. In these notifications, passwords and other private data were requested. While this certainly seems criminal, even for one example, Bochs explained that the application was prevented from receiving or saving the data entered.

How to protect yourself from this type of attack?

You may be wondering: “How can you disable the Bluetooth on your iPhone?” The answer is simpler than it seems. Instead of using Control Center, follow these steps:

1st – Access your iPhone’s settings, using the gear icon.

2nd – Go to the “Bluetooth” option;

3rd – Disable it from this screen so it doesn’t just go into sleep mode.