

Check that, my kids are so glad I discovered it. “Our sign-in and account-recovery policies try to strike a balance between allowing legitimate users to retain access to their accounts in real-world scenarios and keeping the bad actors out,” a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.Īpple recently made it possible to secure the Apple ID using hardware security keys, which are tiny USB dongles.This game was featured by Apple as one of the Twelve Days of Christmas freebies, and I’m so glad I discovered it. The same flaw exists in Google’s Android mobile operating system, but iPhones are “a far more common target” due to their higher resale value, according to law enforcement officials. “They then discovered thousands of dollars in financial thefts, including some combination of Apple Pay charges, drained bank accounts linked to phone apps and money taken from PayPal’s Venmo and other money-sending apps,” the report elaborated. In each case, the iPhone owners’ access to their Apple accounts was blocked.

Nearly all the victims had their iPhones stolen while they were out late at night socializing in public places, pubs, and bars. “We will continue to advance the protections to help keep user accounts secure.”


“We sympathise with users who have had this experience and we take all attacks on our users very seriously, no matter how rare,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying. The ability to turn off Find My iPhone also enables the thief to sell the stolen iPhone.Īs Apple spokesperson said that iPhone is the most secure consumer mobile device, and “we work tirelessly every day to protect all our users from new and emerging threats”. The new password will allow the burglar to turn off Find My iPhone. The software offers an option to force other Apple devices, like Macs or iPads, to sign out of the Apple account after the password change is complete, preventing the victim from using those devices to regain access.īefore setting a new password, the Apple software never asks the user to enter an older one. “The thief can also often loot the phone’s financial apps since the passcode can unlock access to all the device’s stored passwords,” it added. This would prevent the victim from accessing their account or any iCloud data. She lost all the photos, contacts, and notes on the device, and within a day, about $10,000 had disappeared from her bank account.Īs per the report, a trespasser only needed the iPhone and its passcode to quickly change the password for the iPhone owner’s Apple ID. A 31-year-old senior economist at a workforce intelligence startup had her iPhone 13 Pro Max stolen from a bar in Midtown Manhattan.
