The passcode of 0iPhones is considered to be a very safe and protected mode to keep the device secured from anyone outside. It protects the data of the device if the phone is locked, and in case the device gets stolen, it is nearly impossible to easily access or steal data or money without being tracked- the system of the tech giant is so secure. But recently, the news surfaced that the hackers have got the crux to unlock the device and extract the necessary data.
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As per the recent report by Wall Street Journal, hackers have been using a remarkably low-tech trick, where the thieves stay and watch the iPhone owners tap their passcodes on the device. The thieves memories it, and then steal their targetted iPhones and their digital lives.
A 31-year-old senior economist at a workforce intelligence startup reportedly lost all photos, notes and contacts from her iPhone 13 Pro Max which was snatched from her hand in Midtown Manhattan at a bar. post that, she reported that she lost around $10,000 from her bank account within 24 hours.
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The report stated, "With only the iPhone and its passcode, an interloper can within seconds change the password associated with the iPhone owner's Apple ID."
In this way, thieves are locking the victim out of their account, which includes anything which has been stored in the iCloud.
"The thief can also often loot the phone's financial apps since the passcode can unlock access to all the device's stored passwords," the report added.
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When the password change is complete on the stolen device, the software will offer an option to force the change on the other Apple ecosystem like Macs and iPads- user will then get signed out from their Apple account, which will make their accounts inaccessible and will be difficult to regain the access.
The Apple software never requires the user to enter an older password before setting a new one.
Once the thief has updated the new password, he can disable 'Find My iPhone' manually, which will make the device inaccessible.
An 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".
"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.
"We will continue to advance the protections to help keep user accounts secure."
It has been reported earlier, that most of the victims have reported their phones being stolen while they were out at night socialising at public places, bars and pubs.
It was reported in all the cases, that the owners of the iPhone were locked out of their Apple accounts.
"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 further stated.
The same vulnerability has been witnessed in Google's Android mobile OS, but the "higher resale value of iPhones makes them a far more common target", per law enforcement officials.
"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.
Apple has recently introduced the ability to use hardware security keys, little USB dongles, to protect the Apple ID, reported IANS.
