Safeguard Your iPhone: Easy To Follow Security Settings For Your iPhone
Apple’s iPhone is one of the most popular smartphones in the world. With a lot of cool features like a slim design, a good camera and a powerful processor. It is no wonder that this smartphone does not come cheap. The iPhone can be packed with a lot of valuable information and media that is private and for your eyes only. That's why being familiar with the different security settings for your iPhone is important.
It is important that once you get your iPhone running, you have explored and familiarize yourself with all of the security features. If you are not convinced about securing your phone as soon as you get it then these phone security statistics may be able to point you in the right direction.
The iPhone’s security features can be found in its Settings. The Settings control all the features of the device from the wallpaper up to the storage.
The Different Security Settings For Your iPhone
Your iPhone has a lot of security features that you can utilize. In the following sections, we will be talking about some of the more important features of your iPhone in order to guide you in customizing them.
Aside from the security settings written below, there are also different apps available in the App Store which can help you add even more security to your iPhone. Just make sure to read the fine print before you download them.
Touch ID and Password Options
We are all familiar with passwords that needs to be inputted to unlock your iPhone. With iPhones, the lock password is called a Passcode.
Before it used to be a four digit code, but now you can use an alphanumeric code which can be up to 30 letters and numbers! This can make it very hard for thieves to unlock your phone especially when it is protected by a very long and complicated password. That being said, it may still possible for Mobile Phone Forensic Experts to access your phone if they are required to do so for a legal investigation, for example. This means it is important to remember that while your phone may be safe from thieves, there are ways that your mobile information can be accessed if you have used your phone to commit criminal offenses.
The Touch ID is one of the features which separate the old generation iPhones from the newer ones. Touch ID is what Apple calls its fingerprint reader on iPhones. Touch ID and Passcode work hand in hand as the first security barrier on your iPhone because in the event that the Touch ID fails, the iPhone will automatically ask for the Passcode.
It is important to note that when you get your iPhone screen repaired and it involves replacing the home button, the Touch ID will not longer work. The home button is bonded to the motherboard so changing the home button will remove the ability to use the fingerprint scanner.
iCloud Activation Lock
One of the tricks to get around the Touch ID & passcode locks is to wipe all data in an iPhone by restoring it. This also prevents the owner from tracking it by using location services and third party applications.
All security settings, information and media stored in the iPhone will be erased which makes it usable for a complete stranger. This is not an issue if you are selling the iPhone or giving it to a friend but does become a problem if your iPhone gets lost or stolen.
Apple has realized this problem and added the Activation Lock feature which asks the for the owners email & password before all data and security settings in the iPhone gets erased. With this feature, the owner of the iPhone must input the account email & password used when setting up the iPhone. Note, it is the iCloud account password and not the iPhone's security passcode that is required.
It is no surprise that this feature has been widely accepted by many. In fact, according to statistics, the activation lock has led to a decrease in iPhone theft because the feature makes it harder for the thief to use or resell the device.
Restriction on Location Services
Location services are used by your iPhone and third party applications to know where your iPhone is and where you are using it. With location services, your phone can be tracked down by you using a software on your laptop or another device and by law enforcement.
However, in older iPhones, the location services can be turned off by anyone who has access to your iPhone. But now, this task is harder since the person who wants to turn off your location services must first input your Passcode.
Lost Mode
This is also one of the security features not found in older generation iPhones which was introduced with iOS 7. This feature enables you to remotely wipe & lock your iPhone. This is a particularly handy feature when you can't find your iPhone and you are pretty sure that it might fallen into the wrong hands.
But here is the fun part of this feature, you can display a custom message on your iPhone after locking it remotely. It can be as persuasive as “Please give me back my phone.” or as threatening as “If you do not give back my phone, I will call the cops.”
Last but not the least, the lost mode feature will also suspend credit card purchases on the App Store & other stores to ensure that the person who has your iPhone can't buy anything using your credit card.
How to Make Your iPhone More Secure?
Now that you know the different security settings for your iPhone, here are the steps you need to take to activate them.
Touch ID & Passcode
The Passcode is first set up when you start up your iPhone for the first time. If you want to change the Passcode after its initial set up, then here is what you need to do:
- 1Click on the Settings icon found on your Home screen, look for Touch ID & Passcode and tap it.
- 2Scroll down and tap the Change Passcode button.
- 3Enter your old passcode.
- 4Enter your new passcode and then enter it the second time for verification. You are all set!
For Touch ID, note that this feature is only available from the iPhone 5S and up. Also, if the iPhone is being used by more than one person you can store more than one fingerprint.
- 1Repeat the first step indicated above for the passcode, i,e: Settings > Touch ID & Passcode.
- 2Enter your passcode, then tap on “Add a Fingerprint”
- 3Follow the instructions shown on the screen. Note: You will be required to touch the Home button repeatedly until the iPhone gets a good scan of your fingerprint. Once the iPhone shows that the fingerprints are readable and good to go, then you are all set.
- 4If you need to add multiple fingerprints, then just click on “Add a Fingerprint”. Note: You can rename the fingerprint files to avoid confusion.
General Settings
The General tab is where you can find the different security settings for your iPhone. One of the more useful features you can control here is the restrictions section. Here, you can restrict the access of users or third party applications to certain areas on your iPhone.
You can also restrict the ability of the user to purchase apps. These features are especially useful if the user of the iPhone is a child. To access these features, here are the steps to follow:
- 1Enter Settings and then General.
- 2Look for and tap Restrictions and then Enable Restrictions.
- 3Input the passcode that will be used in accessing the restrictions. Note: You will enter the passcode again for verification. Afterwards, you are all set. Explore the restrictions area to know about the access and content that you can control.
Privacy Settings
There are a lot of apps that request access to your personal information and your iPhone’s content. For example, photo editing apps will request to have access to your photos in order to upload them to the editing dashboard.
Social media apps will request access to your contacts in order to look for friends you can add. The good news is that you are in control of how much you share with these apps by managing the privacy settings.
- 1Go to Settings then Privacy.
- 2Tap an item listed there to view the apps that have requested access to your information.
- 3If you want, you can turn on or off the access of certain apps. Simply tap on them and enable or disable the access.
Benefits Of The iPhone Security Settings
The security setting for your iPhone helps safeguard your personal information, media and any other content from theft. Additionally, these can also help deter thieves from stealing your iPhone since there are features that will render it useless. It also gives the users peace of mind knowing that the sensitive and personal data they have stored in the smartphone is well guarded.
Lots of people, more recently, have been jailbreaking their iPhones to remove software restrictions imposed by Apple on iOS. This may weaken the security on your device, so just be wary. Just make sure that whatever the reason you have for jailbreaking your phone, it is worth the potential risk. For more information on jailbreaking, head over to http://kubadownload.com/, where you can find latest news and tutorials, amongst other things.