Security

10 Passcodes You Should NOT Use on Your iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated September 17, 2017

Daniel Amitay, the developer of the Big Brother Camera Security app, ran an interesting survey of his application's users. He added some code to anonymously record passcodes of iPhone owners who use his application.

With this little test, Amitay was able to record 204,508 passcodes from as many devices, giving him the opportunity to find out what the most used passcodes are. If you are using any of these passcodes, you might want to change this right away in order to increase the safety of the information on your device...

New in iOS 5: Stop the Hackers Tapping Your Line With Unsecured Call Warnings

Guest Author ∙ Updated November 26, 2016

Did you know that while you're running iOS 4 on your iPhone, hackers can intercept your phone calls and listen in on your conversations like they do in the movies? Thankfully, however, a new feature in iOS 5 will warn you when you're at risk.

Under the first beta release of iOS 5, if you attempt to make a call that hackers can tap into, you will receive a warning to tell you that the network you're using is not encrypted...

iOS 4 Encryption Broken by ElcomSoft

Cody Lee ∙ May 24, 2011

Up until the Cupertino company launched iOS 4 last year, there wasn't any real data protection for iDevices. This left much of the government and enterprise market who require top notch security, holding onto their BlackBerry devices.

iOS 4 brought about industry-standard AES-256 encryption. The new protection consisted of encrypted key sets that were either tied to the device or to the iDevice user's passcode. Up until now, that encryption has been fairly unbreakable...

Beware: Malware and Phishing Emails Pose as Apple and iPhone 5

Alex Heath ∙ May 23, 2011

Spam emails are circulating that pose as Apple trying to sell new products, including the rumored iPhone 5. According to MacRumors, several reports have come in that talk of an "iPhone 5GS" product launch in a very Apple-like email.

Apple's products have always been used in spam and advertising to get click-throughs, but this round of spam sets itself apart with its striking resemblance to Apple's own design. If you've ever received an email from Apple, you'll notice how similar these spam messages are to the legit ones from Cupertino...

RecognizeMe Allows for Biometric Facial Recognition on a Jailbroken iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ May 18, 2011

In case you needed one more reason to jailbreak your iPhone, try this on for size: biometric facial recognition. Instead of unlocking your iPhone with a simple password (How boring is that?), you can use the iPhone 4's front-facing camera to scan and recognize your face.

RecognizeMe is a new jailbreak app that helps make your iPhone safe from shady characters and potential homescreen peekers. By matching your face to a pre-defined database, RecognizeMe will unlock your iPhone and give you access to your device.

Apple Testifies at Mobile Privacy Hearing

Cody Lee ∙ May 10, 2011

Ever since the location bug was revealed in iOS, mobile privacy has been garnering a lot of attention. So much attention in fact, that Apple has been called to participate in a U.S. Senate panel discussion on the topic, courtesy of Al Franken.

If you haven't heard by now, Apple vice president Bud Tribble was sent by the Cupertino company to the hearing to set the record straight about location tracking in iOS. Not only has Apple corrected the location bug, they are apparently taking further steps to protect their user's privacy...

Closer Look at iPhone’s Location-Tracking Database

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 13, 2019

A couple days ago, we told you about a discovery made by two researchers concerning location data collection on the iPhone. Apparently, the iPhone logs your GPS coordinates for an unspecified amount of time and saves that data to a system-level consolidated.db file that is then synced over to iTunes upon backup.

This finding was demonstrated at the Where 2.0 conference by British programmers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allen. They claimed the discovery as their own, when in fact it has actually been a known issue in the security community since last year.

‘CleverPin’ for the iPhone is an Innovative Way to Balance Ease of Use With Passcode Security

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 18, 2011

Can this guy be stopped? Hot off the heels of the super-popular Springtomize, Filippo Bigarella is back with his latest jailbreak concoction.

CleverPin is a jailbreak tweak for the iPhone that allows you to make the iPhone's passcode lock a little less intrusive from a day-to-day usage perspective.

Ask yourself the following question, and answer honestly; if you're at home, do you really need that passcode lock enabled?

Some of you may, but a good lot of you may not. That's where CleverPin lives up to its cleverness; it disables the annoying passcode lock when you're within the vicinity of a pre-authorized network, such as your home...

App Picks of the Week: NoSpot, Grades, Witness

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Every week, we select a few apps that catch our eye. These apps can be from the App Store, web apps, or jailbreak apps.

This week, we have a nifty jailbreak tweak for disabling Spotlight, an App Store app, and another iOS companion app for the Mac. Hope you enjoy this week's picks!

The State of App Piracy and What Can Be Done to Fix It

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 13, 2019

[iDB does not condone app piracy.]

Have you ever been inside a peddler's mall? It's basically a huge consignment shop where different vendors come and sell their knick knacks under one roof.

People who have items to sell in a peddler's mall pay the mall's owner a percentage of their sales for the rights to sell in the store. People will come to the peddler's mall to see what kind of deals they can find and to barter with the sellers.

In a way, the peddler's mall is a lot like the App Store. And folks, people are shoplifting.

Pwn2Own Safari Exploit Not Fixed in iOS 4.3.1, Could Mean Return of JailbreakMe

Alex Heath ∙ March 26, 2011

Charlie Miller, a security expert who managed to jailbreak iOS 4.3 during the Pwn2Own hacking contest, has revealed an interesting piece of information about 4.3.1. According to Mr. Miller, the Safari exploit uncovered at Pwn2Own is still un-patched in Apple's latest build of iOS.

An official jailbreak has yet to be released for 4.3.1, but the fact that this obvious exploit still exists points to the possibility of a jailbreak solution similar to JailbreakMe. There is no concrete evidence that this bug will be used in a jailbreak tool for iOS 4.3.1...

Apple is Testing Gesture-Based LockScreen for iOS

Alex Heath ∙ February 28, 2011

Apple is reportedly testing an Android-like lockscreen for the next major version of iOS. Google's Android OS has a gesture-based "dots" lockscreen that allows users to unlock their phone by highlighting the dots in a pre-established pattern.

Apparently, Apple is borrowing from Android's lockscreen concept and including it in a future version of iOS. There have been complaints that the current iOS lockscreen is not secure enough, and there have been numerous ways of bypassing the iPhone's 4-digit password...