Spyware is malicious software that enters a user’s computer, collects device and user data, and sends it to third parties without their consent. A commonly accepted definition of spyware is a chain of malware designed to access and damage a device without user consent.
Functionalities of Spyware:
Today, most people are using their smartphones for multiple purposes. A company or a person may have the need to monitor an iPhone for various reasons like theft and dereliction of duty. Monitoring the activities can be done by installing spyware on the device through various means such as hacking, insertion from a third-party location, and installation through iTunes. There is various spying software available on the internet that allow you to monitor all call logs including phone numbers, duration, time, and date, and even location information of where they were made. The company can get a complete contact list of the people who have accessed their phones. Not only that, recording all application crashes, capturing all messages of the device, and installing surveillance software on their smartphones are also possible. In order to get this done, It is much more comfortable to use a third-party app that allows you to control your iPhone remotely and securely rather than having direct control over your phone’s screen.
Identify Spyware:
The first step is to check your settings. Open up “settings” on your iPhone, scroll down, and make sure there is an option for “backup”. If you are not seeing this option, then it might be because you have been infected with spyware. If there isn’t a setting for backup in the settings menu, this might be due to the that your iPhone is stuck in iCloud Recovery mode which means it cannot sync data to iCloud.
Remove Spyware in iOS:
There are four ways to remove spyware:
- Deleting the entire content (photos, videos, and/or audio files) using third-party software.
- Deleting the home directory or any other file on your iPhone using third-party software.
- Using Mobile Device Management with IT administrators to delete any files that do not belong to you from IT administrators’ systems.
Steps for Removing Spyware on MacOS:
Using the iTunes method, there is a procedure that needs to be followed to completely remove the spyware from your iPhone. The steps are as follows:
- First, you need to switch off your iPhone with help of the switch present at the top.
- The next step would be to connect your phone to iTunes through a USB cable that comes along with your laptop or computer.
- Here, you need to open iTunes and press shift+control+option in case macOS is being used, and Windows users will have to use the F key for this purpose. Now you will have links for recovery mode so press command+R for macOS users and shift + F4 for Windows users.
- And here you will get a warning message as your phone has been infected with spyware. You will have to click on the “Continue” button and wait for the process of recovery to be finished.
- Once it is finished, you will get a message saying “your device is ready for use” or similar and all the spyware infections are removed. Hereafter, the steps that need to be followed are as follows: To discover the apps which have been installed on your iPhone, go through iTunes by clicking on its icon present in your desktop or main screen. Here you can see all applications installed on your iPhone and their categories.