How to Lock Down Your iPhone
By: David Koff
Tags: Tech, Privacy, How To, Security, Technology

Lastly, I always recommend activating the “Mission Impossible” setting on your iPhone. While I’m not a spy — well, not yet! — this setting is very spy-like: once activated, it will erase your iPhone after 10 failed password attempts. Only, don’t worry: an erased iPhone won’t also self destruct as it does for Agent Ethan Hunt. 👌

Best Practices

Now that we’ve set up our hardware and software to work for our security and privacy in mind, we’ll need to change our technology habits as well, friends. Why? Because even the most secure tech on the planet is vulnerable if people use it incorrectly. What follows, then, is a list of “best practices” or habits you should adopt to ensure you get the most secure privacy and security for your device.

Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash

Back Up Your Device Regularly

I’ll say it again: your iPhone is your most trusted computer. All computers need to be backed up and your iPhone is no different. Have a plan in place to back up your iPhone manually, via a lightning cable, or wirelessly, via the cloud. Use the answer to this question to determine how frequently you should back up your iPhone: how many days, weeks or months of data am I willing to lose? Then, set your backup schedule according to how you answer that question and encrypt your backups with a password using iTunes. For those backing up to iCloud, those backups are already encrypted by Apple. Just ensure you have enough storage there to handle those backups. For those of you asking why backing up your iPhone is even necessary, just go back and read the part about activating the “Mission Impossible” setting on your iPhone. 👈 Boy, that’d be a bummer if someone intentionally or accidentally erased your entire iPhone and you had no backup, right?

Right.

Update Your Device Regularly

I say “update”, not “upgrade” because there’s a difference:

When we upgrade our computer or smartphones, we’re installing a newer release operating system onto our devices. For example, we upgrade from iOS 11 to iOS 12 and we upgrade from macOS High Sierra to macOS Mojave.

our computer or smartphones, we’re installing a newer release operating system onto our devices. For example, we upgrade from iOS 11 to iOS 12 and we upgrade from macOS High Sierra to macOS Mojave. When we update our computer or smartphones, we’re installing patches to our current release operating system. For example, we update from iOS 11 to iOS 11.1 and we upgrade from macOS Sierra 10.12.5 to 10.12.6.

You should never upgrade your OS until the newest release has been proven to work near flawlessly. But you should almost always update your software when Apple releases patches because those make your computers and iOS devices more secure by providing patches, fixes, and corrections for previously unseen bugs and danger points.

Therefore, please download and install any updates to your iPhone on a regular basis.

Power Off Your iPhone when Entering Any Country

We spoke earlier about the ambiguity of the law in the United States. Any iPhone that’s been powered off will, even if powered back on, require the manual entering of a device password. And that act, in some countries — including the United States — may mean the difference between a lawful search of your device and an unlawful search. Performing this act isn’t something we do because we’re criminals who have something to hide: it’s something we do because we value privacy, security and to live free from unlawful search in a democratic nation. Power off your phone before reaching US Customs or Border Control agents when returning home to the US at the end of a foreign trip.

Use Your VPN at All Times

I’ve written extensively about the need for using a quality VPN and how to pick the right provider. I personally use Nord VPN on my iPhone and Mac, but there are a handful of great companies from which to choose. Once you’ve made that investment, use your VPN all the time. Yes, seriously. Surfing on a cellular network in the US or Croatia? Use your VPN. Going online at a public WiFi hotspot in Canada, Bangladesh or anywhere else in the world? Use your VPN. Sending some email? Use your VPN. Casually browsing online for items to purchase? Use your VPN. Playing “Words with Friends” or “Minecraft”? Use your VPN. Doing some online banking? Most certainly use your VPN. Are you catching a trend here?!? You’ve already paid to have a reputable VPN company provide you with a simple way to protect your privacy: so use it. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing with your iPhone, what network you’re using while you do it or what country you’re in: turn on and use your VPN at all times and for all reasons. The end. Period.

Don’t Give Out Your Personal Information

I wrote an extensive article about this practice and can’t recommend it more: make like a spy and classify yourself! Easily acquire secondary phone numbers, email addresses, and even mailing addresses. It takes about one hour of your time but will pay off in more cases than you can imagine. Then when non-essential people, services, websites, etc. require your “personal information”, give them your secondary info. Amazon and the local grocery store don’t need your personal or work email address to send you coupons, work colleagues don’t need your cellphone number and very few people really need to know your physical address. Don’t share your most critical and personal information online — or in person — unless it is 100% mandatory.

Don’t Jailbreak Your iPhone

This one should be obvious, but I’m including it because some of you are adventurous souls. I get it: it’s tempting to jailbreak your iPhone, especially if you’re running an older version of iOS. Jailbreaking allows you to do cool things you’d otherwise never be able to do, but the truth is — it’s not safe. Once your device is jailbroken, it’s possible to install nonstandard apps coded by programmers who aren’t vetted and approved by Apple. Yes, there are safe apps for your jailbroken device. The problem: Unless you’re an InfoSec expert, you’ll never know for certain which apps are safe and which are dangerous. Malware affects iOS users and is sophisticated enough to steal your AppleID and password. Some malware can steal SMS messages, call logs, location data, photos, address books, and passwords from the iOS keychain and send them to operatives in the Chinese government. So, pretty please: Don’t jailbreak your phones. Not now. Not ever.

That’s it, for now, folks, so surf safe! And make sure to let me know what works for you out there in the wild, wild webs. As always, I try to respond to every comment.