After months of investigation, the Wall Street Journal assures that thieves only need your four-digit PIN code to unlock your smartphone and erase your personal data.
Here’s the problem with your iPhone lying around in a bar
Here’s how they do it. The thief is often someone who befriends iPhone users in a bar. He watches them slyly as they enter their four-digit PIN. When the victim is less attentive, the thief discreetly grabs the smartphone, then types the access code to unlock the device. We know the rest…
I thought for a long time that iPhone theft couldn’t really be successful because I could always go through a secondary device to log into FindMy (Apple’s Find My feature) and track my smartphone.
Unfortunately, the results of the WSJ investigation confirm that this is not the case. After unlocking the device, a thief can use the code to reset your Apple ID. He can then block FindMy access to the smartphone, as well as any other device associated with the account, and access everything saved on your iCloud…
Very quickly, you are therefore helpless since you cannot even erase your device remotely. The thief can also then activate a recovery key, change the phone number and the trusted email address, which could be used to recover your account. Worse, this thief potentially has access to your financial accounts and applications like Venmo (PayPal’s service) or Apple Pay, all from this simple little access code to your iPhone…
So let’s be clear: my phone’s four-digit code is much more important than I thought!
The solution (in addition to not leaving the iPhone lying around on the zinc)
In addition to prioritizing FaceID and TouchID to unlock the iPhone, I think the easiest way to lessen these chances of control theft was to make it harder to passcode my iPhone. Why not start at the root of the problem?
1. Open Settings and select the Face ID & passcode option
First, access your Settings and select the option Face ID and passcode in the menu. From there, select Change code. You will be prompted to enter your old access code before creating a new one.
2. Create a new, more powerful passcode
Although a six-digit code is harder to remember than a four-digit code, I recommend going even further by using an alphanumeric code.
Select Code Options and choose Personal alphanumeric code. Create a code you can remember that includes letters, numbers, and special characters.
A strong alphanumeric code is a code that includes lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers and special characters (@, #, &, !, …). For more security, I recommend that you randomly produce the capital letters, numbers and special characters of the code. Note that there is no technical limit to the length of the alphanumeric code of the iPhone, but between six and ten characters is already a good compromise.
In the end, favor the FaceID or TouchID biometric security measure
Wherever you are, your iPhone’s biometric security measure (FaceID or TouchID) should be your go-to unlocking method. If you need to unlock your device using a numeric or alphanumeric code, then do so away from prying eyes!
Source: “ZDNet.com”