How to Protect your iPhone From Hackers

Apple’s iOS system is very secure but still there are numerous ways to make your iPhone secure from hackers. Here, we provide you with a complete guide to iPhone security and necessary security tips for protecting your iPhone and sensitive data.

Keep iOS up to date

The first tip to secure your iPhone against hackers is to ensure that you always run the most recent updation of iOS. Normally any hacker tries to find any flaws in the coding which could be exploited. When new updates are provided, the loopholes if any present will be patched which provides better stability to the OS. So, it is always advised to keep you iOS updated.

To update to the latest version of iOS, Open the Settings and tap General > Software update. If you are already running the most updated version of iOS then you will be notified that you are already updated. Otherwise, you will be prompted to download and install the latest update. The latest version of iOS is iOS 12.1.

Activate Find my iPhone

One measure you can take to keep your iPhone secure is to activate ‘Find my iPhone’. In case your phone gets lost, you can log onto Find My iPhone from another iOS device or through the web and remotely wipe your device, taking your personal data with it. So even if a hacker gets hold of your iPhone, they cannot find any data in it.

To remotely wipe your iPhone, log in to the Find my iPhone app (or iCloud website), select your iPhone, tap ‘Erase iPhone’ and press confirm. When the phone gets connected to the Internet it will automatically wipe itself.

Create a longer pass code

There are several hacking tools available and one such is GrayKey that can crack iPhone and iPad passwords which is being used by law-enforcement agencies. This tool can crack a four-digit code within few hours and a six-digit code in few days.

The device when plugged into an iOS device, disables the usual passcode-retry and re-entry delay strategies that would normally prevents anyone from accessing a phone after a number of incorrect passcode entries.

It is obvious that there will be lots of similar device with the criminals. Until Apple fixes the vulnerability which is being exploited by GrayKey to run its passcode hack, follow some precautionary measures.

Choose a long passcode: A passcode which is longer than six-digits. It takes a few months to hack an eight-digit pin and at least a decade to crack a ten-digit pin.

Use passphrase that contain words, rather than numbers. Remember to use random words that normally don’t appear together.

While passcodes only use numbers 0–9, a passphrase includes numbers, letters, symbols and case-sensitivity which makes it very hard to break into your phone.

To set up a new passcode for iOS, Open Settings and tap Touch ID & Passcode (or Face ID & Passcode if you have an iPhone X). Enter your Passcode. Tap on Change Passcode and enter your Passcode. Tap Passcode Options and choose either Custom Numeric Code or Custom Alphanumeric Code. Finally enter your new code and verify it.

When you use Touch ID or Face ID to unlock your phone you need not have to use your passcode to unlock it. You may still need it when you restart the device or when you haven’t used your phone for more than six days.

Auto-wipe iPhone content

After ten incorrect passcode guesses, the iPhone will automatically wipe all content and thus make the smartphone useless to the hacker. This is a slight alarming suggestion as some people might accidently activate this feature and delete all their personal information. So, if you are enabling this feature you are advised to turn on the automatic iCloud backup so that if your data is wiped accidentally or when someone tries to hack you, you can be relaxed that all your data has been saved in the cloud.

To enable this option, Go to Settings, Touch ID & Passcode, scroll to the bottom of the page and toggle on ‘Erase Data’.

Avoid opening unknown links

This is a most common suggestion that when you receive an unknown link via text, email or through the web, don’t click on it. This could be a risk to your device as some of them might act as popular email clients like Gmail to gain access to your email account. The pages normally look like an authorized one and so this type of scam is fairly common.

If you don’t trust the email/message then just leave it like that and don’t bother to open. Similarly, do not download the email attachments too.

Revoke app permissions

When you use iOS apps you will be normally asked to give permission to the app to access features like the camera, microphone, contacts, etc. to use the app to the fullest extent. By allowing access you will be able to use every feature of the app but the app may also be able to access your private information.

This is against Apple’s privacy policy and any apps found collecting personally identifiable information will be removed. So far this hasn’t happened but consider it is a possibility.

If you think you have installed a less-than-reputable app on your iPhone, you can either delete it or got to Settings and then Privacy, select the permission you’d like to revoke and toggle the application off.

Turn off Siri

Siri is a great feature of iOS and enables the users to use their smartphone hands-free. It is of much help to the users but it can also provide hackers with personal data. Siri often asks for some kind of verification before allowing access to contacts, photos and other types of sensitive information, but there are several occasions where people have found workarounds completely bypassing the iPhone passcode and providing easy access to the device.

To disable access to Siri on the lock screen, go to Settings > Touch ID and Passcode and toggle the “allow access when locked” option off.

Turn off auto-fill

Apple has auto-fill feature in their web browser Safari. Apple’s Keychain stores website logins which is a very handy feature as the user need not have to remember the login information for all the websites. They can also store the credit/debit card information as well.

But if a hacker manages to gain access to your iPhone, it provides them with access to all your online logins. To disable keychain and auto-fill, go to Settings > Safari > AutoFill and toggle off each option.

How to avoid iCloud photo leaks & hacks

Recently we have seen lots of celebrity photo leaks and usually famous women are being victims by posting nude photos of them. In most of the case an iPhone, or an iCloud account is being involved. It doesn’t imply that Apple hardware and software services are insecure. But nobody can be satisfied about the security of their most personal data and photos.

There are several methods to ensure that your intimate photos are not stolen and posted online by hackers : two-step authentication and an audit of your secure questions are both a good idea.