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iPhones have recently received a new security feature that makes stealing the phone much less attractive. This feature appears to have a vulnerability that, fortunately, you can fix yourself.
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The new Stolen Device Protection in iOS 17.3, “Stolen Device Protection” in Dutch, is an anti-theft feature that makes stealing an iPhone less attractive. This is done through an additional lock for changing certain settings, such as: E.g. changing your PIN code and disabling Find My iPhone.
This additional lock is a facial or fingerprint check and a waiting time. Finally, this control cannot be stolen or copied, a practice that thieves appear to frequently use in practice. iPhones are still being stolen after thieves remotely check the PIN code in public. Then they steal the phone, change the code and disable Find My iPhone: Phone Gone.
The control has a weakness
To make things a little easier for iPhone users, the additional facial or fingerprint verification and waiting time are only necessary when you are in an unknown location. This is not necessary at home, after all it is a “familiar place”, just like school or work. And therein lies the weak point, because as a user you have no control over what a “famous place” is, writes 9to5Mac, among others.
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If you look into the iOS settings, you can see how many places are important according to the system. Apparently there could be hundreds: a few hours in the cinema are apparently enough to call the place “important”. The number of important locations can be found under Settings > Privacy & security > Location services > System > Important locations. However, it is not possible to see the full list of places: you only see some current places.
Locations not always known
It is not clear whether all known locations from this menu also count as known locations for the anti-theft feature. It’s clear that you as a user have little influence over what is such an important place. If you regularly visit the same gym or pub, this could simply be an important location – and so the additional theft measures may not be appropriate there.
You can turn off Important Locations to eliminate the vulnerability, but you’ll have to scan your face or finger more often. Additionally, the Known Locations feature will disappear from other apps such as Photos and Maps.
In the beta version of iOS 17.4, you can set that additional facial or fingerprint verification is always required and that there is always a one-hour waiting time when changing your PIN code, Apple password or other security settings. This feature is disabled by default in the beta and risks leaving you unable to quickly adjust certain settings, even from the safety of your own home.
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