Basic iPhone security for regular people
Real life requires a balance between convenience and security. You might not be a high-profile person, but we all have personal information on our phones which can give us a headache if it falls into the wrong hands.
Here are some options you can enable to harden your iPhone in the case of theft, a targeted attack or just a curious nephew who's messing with your phone.
Even if you don't enable them all, it's always nice to know that these features exist to protect your personal information. This guide is specific for iPhones, but I suppose that most of them can be directly applied to other phones.
Password-protect your phone
Your iPhone must always have a password. Otherwise, anybody with physical access to your phone will get access to all your information: calendar, mail, pictures or *gasp* browser history.
Passwords are inconvenient. However, even a simple 4-digit code will stop casual attackers, though it is not secure against a resourceful attacker
☑ Use a password on your phone: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode
Furthermore, enable the 10-attempt limit, so that people can't brute-force your password.
☑ Erase data after 10 attempts: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Erase data (ON)
If your phone has Touch ID, enable it, and use a very long and complicated password to unlock your phone. You will only need to input it on boot and for a few options. It is reasonably secure and has few drawbacks for most users. Unless you have specific reasons not to do it, just go and enable Touch ID.
☑ Enable Touch ID: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode
Regarding password input, and especially if your phone doesn't have Touch ID, using a numeric keyboard is much faster than the QWERTY one. Here's a trick that will help you choose a secure numeric password which is easy to remember.
Think of a word and convert it to numbers as if you were dialing them on a phone, i.e. ABC -> 2, DEF -> 3, ..., WYZ -> 9. For example, if your password is "PASSWORD", the numeric code would be 72779673.
The iPhone will automatically detect that the password contains only numbers and will present a digital keyboard on the lock screen instead of a QWERTY one, making it super easy to remember and type while still keeping a high level of security.
☑ If you must use a numeric password, use a long one: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode
Harden your iPhone when locked
A locked phone can still leak private data. Accessing Siri, the calendar or messages from the lock screen is handy, but depending on your personal case, can give too much information to a thief or attacker.
Siri is a great source of data leaks, and I recommend that you disable it when your phone is locked. It will essentially squeal your personal info, your contacts, tasks or events. A thief can easily know everything about you or harass your family if they get a hand on a phone with Siri enabled on the lock screen.
This setting does not disable Siri completely; it just requires the phone to be unlocked for Siri to work.
☑ Disable Siri when phone is locked: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Siri
If you have confidential data on your calendar, you may also want to disable the "today" view which usually includes your calendar, reminders, etc.
☑ Disable Today view: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Today
Take a look at the other options there. You may want to turn off the notifications view, or the option to reply with a message. An attacker may spoof your identity by answering messages while the phone is locked, for example, taking advantage from an SMS from "Mom" and tricking her into asking for her maiden name, pet names, etc., which are usually answers to secret questions to recover your password.
☑ Disallow message replies when the phone is locked: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Reply with Message
Having your medical information on the emergency screen has pros and cons. Since I don't have any dangerous conditions, I disable it. Your case may be different.
Someone with your phone can use Medical ID to get your name and picture, which may be googled for identity theft or sending you phishing emails. Your name can also be searched for public records or DNS whois information, which may disclose your home phone, address, date of birth, ID number and family members.
In summary, make it sure that somebody who finds your locked phone cannot discover who you are or interact as if they were you.
☑ Disable Medical ID: Health > Medical ID > Edit > Show When Locked
Some people think that letting anyone find out the owner of the phone is a good idea, since an honest person who finds your lost phone can easily contact you. However, you can always display a personalized message on your lock screen if you report your phone missing on iCloud.
☑ Enable "Find my phone": Settings > iCloud > Find my iPhone > Find My iPhone
Make sure that your phone will send its location just before it runs out of battery
☑ Enable "Find my phone": Settings > iCloud > Find my iPhone > Send Last Location
To finish this section, if you don't have the habit of manually locking your phone after you use it, or before placing it in your pocket, configure your iPhone to do it automatically:
☑ Enable phone locking: Settings > General > Auto-Lock
Harden the hardware
Your phone is now secure and won't sing like a canary when it gets into the wrong hands.
However, your SIM card may. SIMs can contain personal information, like names, phones or addresses, so they must be secured, too.
Enable the SIM lock so that, on boot, it will ask for a 4-digit code besides your phone password. It may sound annoying, but it isn't. It's just an extra step that you only need to perform once every many days, when your phone restarts.
Otherwise, a thief can stick the SIM in another phone and access that information and discover your phone number. With it, you may be googled, or they may attempt phishing attacks weeks later.
Beware that this strategy doesn't allow the phone to ping home after it has been shut down and turned on.
☑ Enable SIM PIN: Settings > Phone > SIM PIN
Enable iCloud. When your phone is associated with an iCloud account, it is impossible for another person to use it, dropping its resale value to almost zero. I've had some friends get their phones back after a casual thief tried to sell them unsuccessfully thanks to the iCloud lock and finally decided to do the good thing and return it.
☑ Enable iCloud: Settings > iCloud
If you have the means, try to upgrade to an iPhone 5S or higher. These phones contain a hardware element called Secure Enclave which encrypts your personal information in a way that can't even be cracked by the FBI. If your phone gets stolen by a professional, they won't be able to solder the flash memory into another device and recover your data.
☑ Upgrade to a phone with a Secure Enclave (iPhone 5S or higher)
Harden your online accounts
In reality, your online data is much more at risk than your physical phone. Botnets constantly try to find vulnerabilities in services and steal user passwords.
The first thing you must do right now is to install a password manager. Your iPhone has one built into the system, which is good enough to generate unique password and auto-fill them when needed.
If you don't like Apple's Keychain, I recommend LastPass and 1Password.
Why do you need a password manager? The main reason is to avoid having a single password for all services. The popular trick of having a weak password for most sites and another strong password for important sites is a dangerous idea.
Your goal is to have a different password for each site/service, so that if it gets attacked or you inadvertently leak it to a phishing attack, it is no big deal and doesn't affect all your accounts.
Just have a different one for each service and let the phone remember all of them. I don't know my passwords: Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, my browser remembers them for me.
☑ Use a password manager: Settings > iCloud > Keychain > iCloud Keychain
There is another system which complements passwords, called "Two-Factor Authentication", or 2FA. You have probably used it in online banking; they send you an SMS with a confirmation code that you have to enter somewhere.
If your password gets stolen, 2FA is a fantastic barrier against an attacker. Without your phone, they can't access your data, even if they have all your passwords.
☑ Use 2FA for your online accounts: manual for different sites
2FA makes it critical to disable SMS previews, because if a thief steals your phone and already has some of your passwords, he can use your locked phone to read 2FA SMS.
If you use iMessage heavily, this may be cumbersome, so decide for yourself.
☑ Disable SMS previews on locked phone: Settings > Notifications > Messages > Show Previews
Make it easy to recover your data
If the worst happens, and you lose your phone, get it stolen or drop it on the Venice canals, plan ahead so that the only loss is the money for a new phone. You don't want to lose your pictures, passwords, phone numbers, events...
Fortunately, iPhones have a phenomenal backup system which can store your phone data in the cloud or your Mac. I have a Mac, but I recommend the iCloud backup nonetheless.
Apple only offers 5 GB of storage in iCloud, which is poor, but fortunately, the pricing tiers are fair. For one or two bucks a month, depending on your usage, you can buy the cheapest and most important digital insurance to keep all your data and pictures safe.
iCloud backup can automatically set up a new phone and make it behave exactly like your old phone.
If you own a Mac, once you pay for iCloud storage,
you can enable the "iCloud Photo Library" on Settings > iCloud > Photos >
iCloud Photo Library for transparent syncing of all your pictures between your phone and your computer.
☑ Enable iCloud backup: Settings > iCloud > Backup > iCloud Backup
If you don't want the iCloud backup, at least add a free iCloud account or any other "sync" account like Google's, and use it to store your contacts, calendars, notes and Keychain.
☑ Enable iCloud: Settings > iCloud
Bonus: disable your phone when showing pictures
Afraid of handing your phone over to show somebody a picture? People have a tendency to swipe around to see other images, which may be a bad idea in some cases.
To save them from seeing things that can't be unseen, you can use a trick with the Guided Access feature to lock all input to the phone, yet still show whatever is on the screen.
☑ Use Guided Access to lock pictures on screen: Read this manual
This is not a thorough guide
As the title mentions, this is an essential blueprint for iPhone users who are not a serious target for digital theft. High-profile people need to take many more steps to secure their data. Still, they all implement these options too.
The usual scenario for a thief who steals your phone at a bar is as follows: they will turn it off or put it in airplane mode and try to unlock it. Once they see that it's locked with iCloud, they can either try to sell it for parts, return it or discard it.
Muggers don't want your data. However, it doesn't hurt to implement some security measures.
In worse scenarios, there are criminal companies specialized in buying stolen phones at a very low price and perform massive simple attacks to unsuspecting users to trick them into unlocking the phone or giving up personal data.
You don't need the same security as Obama or Snowden. Nonetheless, knowing how your phone leaks personal information and the possible attack vectors is important in defending yourself from prying eyes.
You have your whole life on your phone. In the case of an unfortunate theft, make it so the only loss is the cost of a new one.
Tags: security