Sharing for a wider audience having seen this happen on the Euston Road on Tuesday evening...
Last week, I had my phone stolen – swiped by a guy on an electric bike. Something that now happens every 5 minutes in London (growing by 150% a year). It’s caused no end of hassles - insurance, cancelling cards, data concerns etc. It's now in an industrial complex in China… and yours could be there too very soon. I’ve massively geeked out on phone security. So here’s my guide on what every iPhone user should do RIGHT NOW to protect yourself. Please feel free to share!! THE FUNDAMENTALS 📱 Get phone insurance 📱 Be very wary of your surroundings when using your phone on the street 📱 Save your IMEI number (you’ll need this if stolen): Settings > General > About BASIC IPHONE SECURITY 📱 Turn on ‘Stolen Device Protection’: Settings > Face ID & Passcode > 'Stolen Device Protection' and set this to ‘always’ (this means that if your phone is stolen, the thief can’t change your passwords when away from your home, even if they know your passcode) 📱 Ensure your devices are set up on ‘Find My’ and you know how this works 📱 Set your screen lock to 30 seconds: Settings > Display and Brightness > Auto-lock. When your screen is locked, there’s less they can do to steal your data. 📱 Require Face-ID for any apps that contain secure data: Settings > Face ID & Passcode and/or full press app icon on home screen then 'Require Face ID' 📱 Disable 'Control Centre' from lock screen: Settings > Face ID & Passcode > scroll down and disable 'Control Centre'. The first thing a savvy thief will do is put on airplane mode to stop you disabling it remotely and then changing the above settings. As long as your screen is locked, they can’t access other data (see below advanced security to lock your screen). ADVANCED IPHONE SECURITY 📱 Automate screen lock and require Face ID when putting your phone in airplane mode: As above, you’ve given the thief 30 seconds before the screen will lock, but still plenty of time to put into airplane mode and change this setting. See how below in comments. 📱 Stolen phone ‘focus’: You can set up a new ‘focus’ (like work, sleep etc.) that you can set on your watch or mac. When initiated, it will: 📴 Set the brightness to 0 (very hard to see unless pitch black) 📴 Put the phone in low power mode to maximise time online for you to track 📴 Take a photo with the front and back camera and saves it to the cloud (on the off chance you may get their face) 📴 Automatically locks the screen See below comment on how to set this up. WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PHONE GETS STOLEN 📱 Set your status to ‘Stolen phone’ asap (on your watch or Mac) 📱 Immediately after, set your phone to ‘lost’ on ‘Find my’ and then ‘erase’. 📱 Call the Police (when you can!) - you'll need a crime reference number for insurance. They'll need IMEI code above. 📱 Call your phone provider to cancel the SIM Then do some drills... test if this works and how you would respond. You aren't going to get your phone back, but you can limit the pain! #theft #security #phone #safety