Fortunately, there isn’t a cartoonish thief lurking around every corner looking to steal your iPhone. But unfortunately it often happens that thieves manage to gain access to someone’s iPhone, lock the user out and then make off with your personal data. In some cases, hackers have even used the banking app on hacked iPhones to enrich themselves. This is done by abusing the recovery key. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself from such actions.
Is anyone watching?
Commercials from the government, banks and concerned mothers always repeat the same slogan when it comes to withdrawing money from an ATM: “Make sure no one is watching!” I have never experienced it myself, but of course there are thieves active who, after copying someone’s PIN code, make off with your debit card.
In today’s modern world, a debit card is no longer the only way to manage your money, so thieves are more than happy to make off with your phone. And they don’t even care about the phone itself. Nowadays, thieves abuse the recovery key function of iPhones to perform more or less the same trick. Eavesdropping while someone enters the code of an iPhone, or stealing the code from the owner. They then steal the iPhone and lock out the owner.
They do this by changing the Apple ID of the iPhone with the code and turning off the ‘find my iPhone’ function, so that the device cannot be traced. Finally, the recovery key is reset. Apple says it sympathizes with people who fall victim to such practices, but that users are responsible for monitoring their devices and the recovery key.
What can you do?
First of all, protect your passcode. An iPhone has biometric options such as Face ID and Touch ID to unlock your smartphone. This way you avoid having to enter your code in a public setting. It is also possible to create a longer alphanumeric code that makes it more difficult, but not impossible, for peeping toms to remember your code. Does a thief not know your code? Then stealing your iPhone yields much less. If you think someone has seen your code, change it as soon as possible.
In addition, it is possible to use parental control settings to thwart thieves. On an iPhone with parental controls enabled, you must enter an extra code to change the phone’s Apple ID.
Finally, make regular backups. By making regular backups of your device via iCloud or iTunes, you will at least not lose your data if your iPhone is stolen.
2023-10-28 13:51:31
#iPhone #thieves #bay
