Hi Aman, I beg to differ, in my opinion enabling passcode and touch Id offers a great deal of security and if you were concerned about how relatively easy it is to break a 4-digit passcode, you can always disable simple passcode and use a 8 or 10 digit password with letters, numbers and all that. Touch Id of course makes it super easy to unlock your iPhone so that the actual passcode is only required when you reboot your phone which typically is not that often so using a more difficult passcode may be justified. The main reason why I upgraded from my 4S to the 5S at the time was Touch Id and even if I don't have very sensitive data on my phone, I still wouldn't want people to have access to my contact list, pictures, text messages or emails.
Also, I think there is a difference whether your phone is stolen by somebody who thinks he can make a few bucks reselling it or by a skilled hacker who thinks you have information on your phone which warrants an effort of at least hours or maybe days to try and break into it. I think the chances my phone is stolen by somebody like that are pretty small. Furthermore, if my phone is locked with a passcode/Touch Id, somebody who steals it cannot disable Find my iPhone nearly as easily although I believe even a phone with no security which has Find my iPhone turned on requires you to enter your Apple Id password when you try to disable Find my iPhone. Anyhow, to me using Touch Id if your device supports it is a no brainer even if you just use it because it's faster and easier to unlock the phone than finding and double tapping the Unlock button. I have to press the home button even if I don't have any security enabled so I might as well press it and leave my finger on it for a second so it unlocks my phone with Touch Id. In some ways not using it would be like not locking your car because after all, a professional and skilled auto thief will be able to steal it whether it's locked or not. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Aman Singer Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 11:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Iphones no longer secure Hi Jeremy and all, Around fifteen years ago now, someone at Microsoft wrote something he called the ten immutable laws of security https://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc722487.aspx The whole thing is worth reading, but one of the laws or more accurately descriptions, says: Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore A smartphone is nothing more or less than a computer. The passcode/fingerprint is simply security theatre, it makes things look secure and may be secure against someone who doesn't have Google, but it is not secure in fact. Once the phone is in the hands of someone who wants and is willing to bypass the security, nothing is secure in fact, it only depends on how much trouble the attacker is willing to go to. As to this particular method of attack, the user can simply make sure Siri doesn't work on the lock screen. Again, though, it doesn't much matter, there are other methods. Keep your phone with you and, in most cases, you need not worry about physical access without your knowing about it. This is one of the reasons why I have no passcode on my phone, it offers very little extra security but does offer an inconvenience when I want to unlock the phone. I do not keep any secure data on my phone, any data that I object to the public having access to, simply because the chance of theft is too high and, as we see, the passcode is not of much use. Aman -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
