This is how you keep iPhone thieves out

Fortunately, there’s no cartoon thief lurking around every corner looking to steal your iPhone. But unfortunately, it often happens that thieves can access someone’s iPhone, block the user and then steal your personal data. In some cases, hackers have used the banking app on compromised iPhones to enrich themselves. This is done by misusing the recovery key. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself from such actions.

Is there anyone watching?

Commercials from the government, banks, and concerned moms always repeat the same slogan when it comes to withdrawing money from ATMs: “Make sure no one’s watching!” I’ve never experienced this myself, but of course there are active thieves who, after copying someone’s PIN, steal your debit card.

In today’s modern world, a debit card is no longer the only way to manage your money, so thieves will be happy to steal your phone. And they don’t even care about the phone itself. Nowadays, thieves are misusing the recovery key function of iPhones to perform almost the same trick. Eavesdropping while someone is entering an iPhone code, or stealing the code from the owner. Then they steal the iPhone and lock out the owner.

They do this by changing your iPhone’s Apple ID with the code and turning off the Find My iPhone function, so the device can’t be tracked. Finally, the recovery key is reset. Apple says it sympathizes with people who fall victim to such practices, but users are responsible for monitoring their device and recovery key.

What can you do?

First of all, protect your passcode. iPhone has biometric options like Face ID and Touch ID to unlock your smartphone. This way you avoid having to enter your code in a public place. It is also possible to create a longer alphanumeric code which makes it more difficult, but not impossible, for a peeping cat to remember your code. Does the thief not know your code? Hence having your iPhone stolen results in much less consequences. If you think someone has seen your code, change it as soon as possible.

Additionally, it is possible to use parental control settings to thwart thieves. On an iPhone with parental controls enabled, you must enter an additional code to change the phone’s Apple ID.

Finally, make regular backups. By making regular backups of your device via iCloud or iTunes, at least you won’t lose your data if your iPhone is stolen.