Warning: Protect Yourself from New Apple Phone Theft and Unauthorized Apple Pay Use

A just-released report highlights a new phenomenon in the world of iPhone theft: Thieves spy on victims’ phone numbers before stealing the devices, aiming to gain access to their personal data, including Apple and banking apps. Pay.

The lengthy investigation, published by the Wall Street Journal and including interviews with a number of victims, argues that Apple should support additional protections for its phones, making it difficult for the thief to access user data even if the thief knows the secret code for the device.

According to the report, all of the victims the newspaper interviewed said their phones were stolen while they were away in public places in the evening. Some victims reported having phones stolen from their hands, while others said they were physically assaulted and threatened. Once the thief has the passcode for the iPhone, he can easily reset the Apple account password and disable the Find My iPhone feature. This makes it difficult for the device owner to track its location or remotely wipe it via iCloud. The thief can also remove other trusted devices from the account to add an extra layer of protection for the hacker.

However, the report cautions that the risk of iPhone theft doesn’t stop there. Once the thief obtains the iPhone password, he can use the “Apple Pay” and “Apple Cash” electronic payment applications and access the banking applications using the passwords stored in the “iCloud Keychain” password service. The thief can also unlock the Apple Card by finding the last four digits of the victim’s social security number in the archived photos in apps like the Photos app or Google Drive. Also, accessing other passwords stored in iCloud Keychain allows the thief to do more damage, as he can gain access to email accounts and other sensitive information.

Security Tips

The report released a series of steps iPhone users can take to maintain the security of their personal data and reduce the risk of falling victim to this type of theft. Recommendations include changing your device’s passcode from a four-digit code to one that includes a mix of letters and numbers, making it difficult for snoopers to memorize the code.

This can be done in the Settings app under the “Face ID & Passcode” section, then Change Passcode. The phone unlock function can also be used by Face ID or Touch ID as much as possible instead of the passcode when you leave in public places to prevent thieves from spying on the passcode. In cases in which need to enter a passcode, users can put their hands over the screen to hide the code entry.

Interestingly, this phenomenon is not only exclusive to iPhone phones, but can be applied to any other phone. Therefore, the protection of your devices and data in stored them should be a priority for all smartphone users. We recommend that you follow basic security measures, such as users changing account passwords periodically, avoiding passwords that can be easily guessed, and enabling two-factor authentication. Password managers can also be used to generate strong, random passwords for all accounts.

Apple responds

Apple responded to this report by saying it is working hard to protect its users from new threats. However, the company did not provide specific details on next steps that can be taken to increase security. The report suggested adding new protections to iOS and supporting more account recovery options.

The post Warning: Protect Yourself from New Apple Phone Theft and Unauthorized Apple Pay Use appeared first on Asume Tech.

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