Security

NYPD: Register your iPhone and we’ll track it down faster

Oliver Haslam ∙ September 21, 2012

There is nothing worse than having your property stolen, whether that be an iPhone, an iPad or anything else. Getting it back may not repair all the damage, but it certainly goes some way to helping.

If you went to New York's 5th Avenue flagship Apple Store, then you may have seen some of the cities finest, the NYPD, suggesting that new iPhone owners register their latest purchases with them. The reason? To help get hardware back to the rightful owners should the need arise.

In a day and age where Find My iPhone has already proven to be hugely popular in helping to retrieve stolen property, there's no reason not to add another string to your iPhone-retrieving bow...

How to enable Lost Mode if your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen

Ankur Thakur ∙ Updated September 5, 2025

We’ll show you how to use Apple’s Find My service to enable Lost Mode for your iPhone or iPad that was lost, stolen, misplaced, or left behind. Lost Mode will password-protect your device, lock it remotely, and also display a custom message on the device Lock Screen with your phone number.

iOS 6 fixes SMS spoofing bug according to hacker

Jeff Benjamin ∙ September 19, 2012

According to iOS hacker Joshua Hill aka p0sixninja, many security vulnerabilities have been stamped out in iOS 6.

Earlier today, Hill tweeted that pod2g's SMS exploit was among one of the security issues addressed.

iPhone 4S hacked using Safari exploit in Pwn2Own contest

Cody Lee ∙ September 19, 2012

Users of Apple's iPhone and other iOS devices enjoy a fairly high level of security. In the past five years, the platform has only seen a handful of malware scares, and MIT says it recently crossed a "significant" threshold in security.

But all of that security couldn't stop the iPhone 4S from getting hacked today at the Pwn2Own contest in Amsterdam. A group of Dutch security researchers gained remote access to the handset in seconds with a Safari exploit...

Report: Malware targeting Russian smartphones 40 times more than US

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated February 22, 2018

All smartphones are not created equal -- at least in the eyes of malware authors. A smartphone in Russia is 40 times as likely to be infected by malware than the same iPhone or Android handset in the U.S., according to security researchers.

Product manager Derek Halliday of mobile security expert Lookout tells All Things Digital the 40-to-1 difference represents "a pretty massive gulf."

Apple says it had nothing to do with leaked UDIDs

Cody Lee ∙ September 5, 2012

A few nights ago, a group of hackers known as AntiSec published a list of over 1 million Apple device IDs. The group says it obtained the UDIDs, and tons of other information, from the laptop of an FBI agent.

Yesterday, the FBI released a statement, saying that there was no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised, or that its agents collected the data. And today, Apple commented on the situation...

Check if your iOS device has been compromised by the FBI breach

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

Yesterday, news broke that the hacking group AntiSec published a million UDIDs from an alleged trove of twelve million device IDs claimed to have been stolen from a laptop belonging to an FBI agent. Even though the hackers had removed some of the identifiable information from the list, your UDID might be exposed out in the wild, along with 999,999 other IDs posted on the web.

And why would you want to know if your UDID is out there for everyone to see? Good question. Your UDID uniquely identifies your device and expert hackers could use it to glean all sorts of information from other data associated with your UDID.

Yeah, it's a privacy catastrophe, one that might potentially even lead to identity theft. Perhaps even more important than that, wouldn't you like to know if your device is on the FBI's watch list?

New spyware found capable of taking over iPhones

Cody Lee ∙ August 30, 2012

The iPhone receives a fair amount of praise for its security features. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that the handset's encryption is so good, that it's tough for law enforcement agencies to perform forensics.

But this doesn't mean it's impenetrable, as hackers continue to find flaws. In fact, another big one was recently discovered in the form of spyware, which can take over the iPhone and give a user remote access to its contents...

Security firm says SMS is safer on Android than iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

Last week, infamous iOS hacker pod2g released a report regarding a new security flaw he discovered in Apple's mobile software. The exploit allows for SMS spoofing, and could be used for malicious purposes.

The following day, Apple issued a statement on the texting bug, saying that it was a problem that all manufacturers had to deal with. But according to a new report, that may not be the case...

Graphic shows the state of app security on iOS and Android

Cody Lee ∙ Updated November 28, 2016

A report came out last week from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT), claiming that the iPhone had crossed a "significant threshold" in mobile security. In fact, it deemed Apple's platform one of the safest in the category.

But according to a new study, hackers aren't having any problems cracking through the security of iOS applications. The data comes from Arxan Technologies, in the form of an infographic, regarding iOS and Android app security...

Apple kinda responds to the SMS security flaw found in iOS

Sébastien Page ∙ August 18, 2012

Yesterday we broke the news that our friend and iOS hacker pod2g had uncovered a major security flaw in the way the iPhone handles SMS. The exploit basically allows anyone to specify a different "reply-to" phone number when sending you a text message. You can easily imagine various scenarios of how this could be used maliciously.

Today, Apple sent a statement that doesn't necessarily makes us feel better about the exploit found, but which does insist on the fact that iMessage is more secure than standard text messages...

Pod2g uncovers major SMS security flaw in iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 11, 2018

Despite the fact that Apple continues to receive praise for the security in iOS, hackers continue to discover vulnerabilities. Just look at all of the exploits that have been used in past jailbreaks.

Today, Pod2g adds another one to that list with his newly discovered SMS flaw. It has to do with the way the iPhone handles SMS, and could open the doors for text message spoofing...