In this episode, Thomas Domville demonstrates the new Stolen Device Protection feature introduced in iOS 17.3. This feature is designed to protect against the rare instance when someone has stolen your iPhone and knows your passcode.
Thomas begins by explaining the purpose of the Stolen Device Protection feature. It prevents unauthorized individuals from performing critical device and Apple ID account operations, like changing your device passcode or Apple ID password. This is achieved by requiring biometric authentication with Face ID or Touch ID, with no passcode fallback.
He then moves on to the step-by-step guide on how to enable the Stolen Device Protection feature:
Go to Settings.
Depending on your iPhone model, do one of the following:
On an iPhone with Face ID: double Tap Face ID & Passcode, then enter your passcode.
On an iPhone with a Home button: double Tap Touch ID & Passcode, then enter your passcode.
Scroll down to the Stolen Device Protection section, then double tap Turn On Protection.
Note: If you don't see the Stolen Device Protection section, you may need to set up Face ID or Touch ID first.
The episode also covers the Security Delay feature, which requires a successful Face ID or Touch ID authentication, an hour wait, then an additional successful biometric authentication. This feature helps prevent someone from making changes to settings that can lock you out of your iPhone or Apple ID account.
For further details about the Stolen Device Protection feature, you can refer to the following resource:
Use Stolen Device Protection on iPhone
https://support.apple.com/is-is/guide/iphone/iph17105538b/ios
transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Hello and welcome.
My name is Thomas Donville, also known as AnonyMouse.
I'm going to talk to you today about a feature called Stolen Device Protection.
Now this will be ultimately up to you if you want to turn this feature on.
This is a feature that will just kind of enhance your security protection for your iPhone and other settings.
I'll explain a little more here.
When this item is set to on, this will give you an additional protection when it comes to anytime that your phone is stolen or gets lost.
In theory, the feature came about, unfortunately, because there have been some incidents where people will be watching other people gain access to their iPhone, whether that's using the passcode or using their biometric authentication to get into the phone and thus forth then gets stolen from that person.
Or maybe perhaps you lost your phone and somebody somehow, someway gets onto your phone one form or another.
Well this protection will defeat from that person being able to make changes to some critical areas on your device.
So the first layer of protection when this is turned on, this will protect you from them being able to access to certain settings that will now require a biometric authentication.
So it kind of bypass if there weren't any passcode to that area before, you will now have to be able to use authentication by a biometric to gain access to certain settings at this point in on.
One of the big thing that I like about this and it's kind of critical for me is that now if someone were to gain access to your keychain area, which is very huge for me because that is where most of my credentials live, that means everything you have logged in, whether that is medical wise or your bank or whatever not, that's where they will find your credentials for your sign in, so that includes your user ID and password and what not.
So that section now requires a biometric authentication.
Another big one is that it prevents them from being able to erase the phone entirely now that it is required to have the biometric authentication.
Now we're going to bump this up a level, kind of a phase two kind of a protection.
And this is a big one.
Once you have unlocked your device by a biometric authentication, not a passcode, but a biometric authentication, once that has been open and unlocked your device with that, you'll have to wait one hour.
So either you or the thief that has your phone will have to wait one full hour before they are able to make any changes to such as being add a new biometric authentication by a face ID or touch ID.
And then one of the big ones that I really, really like besides on top of the keychain is that they now have to wait an hour after you unlock the device with a biometric authentication to gain access and change your Apple ID password.
So once you get to that field, you all again have to use your biometric authentication.
And another and last big one I want to mention is that they are not going to be able to turn off the bind my without authentication after an hour.
So that is pretty big.
That's a pretty big step in terms of protecting your device because one of the big things that a thief or a person that has your phone once they gain access to your phone, the big thing that they always typically do is go directly to your Apple ID and then change the password.
Then that point and on you're completely locked out.
They have essentially taken over your account, your personal ID and everything along with that phone.
And unfortunately, once that password has changed, Apple will not be able to help you change it and you're pretty much locked out.
Yeah, that means you would lose your messages, your photos, your key chain, everything you have saved and worked so hard to keep and build up on your device is now gone because the Apple ID could never be used again, unless for some reason, somehow you're able to get the account back.
But more than likely, you will not be able to get that back.
So to me, that is a big deal.
The other one I like is that the find my cannot be turned off.
So that is another reason why having this features on maybe when you lose your phone or thieves take your phone, they're not going to do that as likely as they would now because now there's no loophole or back door that they're able to make gain access to that phone and change what they need to in order to have a successful theft of your phone, if that makes sense.
Now, I'm going to show you how to turn this option on and also going to show you an additional option that you can choose from and I'm going to explain that in more details because there is a catch 22, there's two of them actually.
And I want to tell you about that.
And then I'll give you a tip, a device that I do that I like to pass along to you as well.
So we're going to head over to settings, let's turn on this known device protection.
So go to your native settings, settings, double tap to open, and we're going to use one finger and double tap to open up settings, settings.
And then when you're here, what we're going to do is we're going to swipe to the right until you get to face ID and passcode.
Now of course that's for folks with face ID enabled devices.
Now if you have a touch ID, you'll need to go over to touch ID and passcode face ID and passcode button.
And here we are.
We're going to do one finger double tap.
Now once you open up this particular setting, it's going to ask for a passcode.
So let's go ahead and double tap that passcode secure text field is editing zero of six values entered.
And this is where you enter your passcode and I'm going to put mine in here.
Settings back button.
Now that you're in this face ID and passcode area, now what we're looking for, we're going to swipe to the right until we get to stolen device protection, stolen device protection on button.
Now you have heard that in my case is turned on.
Now this is possible.
It is possible that it's already set on this will depends be depends on you really.
If you have upgraded to a version of iOS, it possibly could ask you this in advance and you may have turned this on inadvertently or didn't know about this option, or you possibly could have turned said no, or you may have never seen this prompt.
Nonetheless, this is where you come back to it.
If you want to change this to turn this to on, if it isn't on already, we're going to do one finger double tap on this stolen device protection switch button on double tap to toggle setting.
And you are going to do just that.
So if you want to turn this on, if it's already off, do one finger, don't tap and that will turn this feature on.
If you like this feature turned off, do one finger, don't tap and that will turn this off.
Now I mentioned there's a couple things I want to show you and let's go to the right here.
This adds another layer of security to your iPhone in the event that it is stolen and someone knows your passcode.
Learn more link, double tap to activate embedded link.
If you'd like to know more information about the stolen device protection, there's a link there.
If you don't tap that what's going to happen is going to open up your default web browser.
So Safari in my case, it's going to go right to that Apple support page that discusses about the stolen device protection.
It will explain in detail what that is if you'd like to know more about this feature.
Now I did mention there is an option that you have two different types of options when this is set on and this is very important.
So let me explain this first the options and then I'll explain what these mean.
Require security delay, heading selected away from familiar locations, always a delay will be required when you are not at a familiar location such as your home or work to change security settings.
So the two options that we had there were away and always by default away is set on.
What does that mean?
So when you are in a unknown area, so if it's an area that you don't frequently visit very often and this option is turned on the stolen device option is turned on those items that I mentioned that needs a biometric authentication will take effect.
That means when you are in a area that you don't frequently visit, those are the areas or the time that you will be kicked in that you need to do biometric authentication.
So in other words, for your frequently visited area, so if you're home or work possibly your school is on there if you visit that every day, the phone is going to be smart enough to know where you go on a frequent basis.
If you're in an area that you frequently visit, then it's not going to require a biometric authentication.
So that is a nice little feature to have.
However, if you are extra paranoid or you need extra protection, let's just say here's a good example.
If you live in an apartment or if you have roommates and you are not really trusting them all that much, even if you put your phone to whatever that might be unfortunate situation that you are in, you could always set that to always and always means you will always have to provide a biometric authentication to be able to change those items that I mentioned before.
Now, I'd mentioned that there's a catch 22.
So this is something just for you to think about.
It's not a deal breaker for me.
It's just that you need to think in and ahead and sometimes you have to be prepared before you come across this situation.
So here's a scenario, let's just say I go to my carrier, for example, and I need to turn in my phone from one form or another, whether I need to get a replace for repair or I am upgrading to a new phone.
Well that is a great example where you will have to turn off the find my because they need that turned off before you can turn in your device.
That's just required.
Well, unfortunately, that is going to be a area that I don't frequently visit.
That's mean, yes, I could unlock my device with my biometric authentication, but do you remember that second phase that's that delay?
There's that one hour delay before I can turn off the find my.
So thus for you're not going to be able to turn that off.
So you just need to be prepared.
So if I know I'm going to go to the carrier and I'm going to have to turn this off, I would probably just either home at work.
I will go ahead and go to my settings, go to my stolen device protection and turn that option off before I go to the carrier, for example.
That way I don't have to worry about doing the delay.
And also if you set that to always remember you will have that one hour delay, even if you're at home because you have selected always.
So just keep that in mind.
And the tip that I like to give you is that this is a good tip.
I like to tell all my clients and friends out there, if someone were to gain access to your phone, there are still sensitive apps, right?
So I have a banking app and I have a medical app.
There's all sorts of different apps that are very sensitive and contains personal information I don't want them to have.
If you don't lock down those apps, then they'll be able to access those apps, right?
So a lot of them, like the example, my banking app, for example, not all of the apps do this, but more of the more sensitive do have this option.
Back into the app, sometimes under the settings, there is a way to lock down your app with a face ID or touch ID.
So it has to be an app and it has to be within the developer has to create this.
And that allows me whenever I go into my banking app, it will do a biometric authentication to get into my banking app, my medical app, my pharmacy app and things like that.
So if it has that as an option, I would definitely turn that on because you want to think in advance, like if somebody would take my phone, what are the areas that I want to lock down?
Of course, that would be Apple ID, your key chain, and of course, some of your personal apps.
So I just want to put that out there as well.
So you definitely have something to think about.
This is not a done deal for everyone.
And this will be up to you if you'd like to turn this on.
And now you know the consequences of when you turn this on and the situation you might come across that might frustrate you because this option is turned on.
Now for me, I am definitely going to keep this on gives me that little more sense of peace of mind that if somebody were to get my phone, that it is pretty locked down.
Nothing is ever foolproof and phones can always be replaced.
Yes, it could be financially hardship to replace a phone, but I can tell you right now, if I lose my Apple ID, well, that would be devastating because that cannot be replaced easily.
You'll have to redo everything.
So that is the stolen device protection.
My name is Thomas Donville, also known as AnonyMouse.
Until next time, bye bye.