Apple Has A New Secret Trick To Stop Thieves From Breaking Into Your Phone: What It Offers
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Apple always talks about privacy but efforts like these show its devices are one of the hardest to crackdown.
The new feature is allowing the device to lock itself from possible tampering.
iPhones are often part of legal cases that require Apple to unlock the device if the law enforcement agencies demand it. The company has a history of denying such access to the cops and soon you will have a better mechanism in place to make sure that nobody can break into your iPhone, including thieves.
The new feature called inactivity reboot has been spotted in the latest iOS 18.1 version that is running on a wide range of iPhones, including the new iPhone 16 series.
New iPhone Security Tool: What is it
The inactivity reboot, as the name suggests, is basically a mechanism that is activated from Apple’s end to keep the device secure, especially when it is unusually switched off or if some unusual activity is happening on the iPhone. These instances occur when your iPhone is stolen or being confiscated by law agencies, who try multiple times to activate the device by trying different passwords. The power of rebooting on its own means the iPhone becomes almost impossible to unlock, even using high-tech tools. The details about this feature are making headlines this month because of the recent story where iPhones were rebooting on their own, which is how the new feature operates and secures the device.
The report from 404 media, citing a security expert, says the reboot timer, “will cause devices in an AFU state to reboot to a BFU state after a set period of time which we have also identified.” AFU means After First Unlock and BFU is Before First Unlock.
So, basically, Apple tracks the device (with its own system) and observes if the device has been unlocked at least once after rebooting. Or else, the secure mechanism kicks in, which means the BFU state comes into play, making the iPhone hard to crack.
It is fascinating to see Apple bring new advanced security tech to its devices which makes them less appealing to the thieves, if they are unable to crack the code and access the contents on the device. This and the lockdown mode are some of the iOS tools that most people will not need but good to have them around.
