Cybersecurity

[Black_Heart]

Been going through iOS 16 new features and I highly recommend that everyone uses Lockdown Mode. Doesn’t matter if you’re an average joe or a politician. If you don’t that’s on you, in a world of increasing cyber attacks you definitely don’t want your private information stolen and sold on the dark web. Don’t rely on having a simple password, use a complex hexadecimal password for your device login, use a good VPN that doesn’t log your searches, also add extensions to safari that improve its security if you use it, stay away from google related apps at all costs. You want to have a good ad blocker, tracker blocker and limit how much information about your device gets identified through fingerprinting. I recommend using tor related web browsers such as onion browser or alternatively Brave Browser to spoof fingerprinting, each has its own unique benefits. I also use OrBot app that doubles as a type of VPN Proxy and an extension for Safari to block unwanted adds, but be careful because it can cause issues with some websites. Also not a bad idea to setup Encryption on the device itself and block usb connections to external devices, this can be simply be one of the most important tasks that you can do since you will be prompted for your unique device password to connect to a pc. Another important feature to take into consideration is content and privacy restrictions under screen time, go through and enable/disable all the setting you want to adapt and then change from allow to don’t allow and create a 4 digit passcode to lock screen time. Something I wish Apple would do is let us choose to change the complexity of the password from 4 digits to Hexadecimal but don’t see that happening anytime soon unfortunately, it would probably be an easy fix, or password locking the files app which is also another vulnerability. Once you setup screen time some options will disappear and some will be greyed out, most importantly accounts will be greyed out and cannot be accessed until you reactivate it by simply going back into content and privacy restrictions and allowing it, Two things you should do in account before hand is going into iCloud and Active Private Relay and set IP Address Location to Use Country and Time Zone and Toggle it in, Hide My Email is another great tool to use to anonymize you on the web, not a bad idea to activate it. Passcode changes in the same menu as Account Changes set to Don’t Allow will completely hide Face ID and Passcode which is important for many reasons but mainly even in the event of a breach such as you walking away from your phone for an extended period of time someone may have access to it but wont be able to change key settings to your device, which brings me to Auto-Lock I recommend setting it to 30 seconds but if you’re like me and never leave it unlocked you can set it to anything you desire. Another important feature in Face ID and Passcode is Allow Access When Locked, personally I toggle everything off, if left on there have been numerous ways to bypass the Lock Screen without the use of Touch ID, Face ID and Password Lock in the past, whether or not Apple has addressed these issues is not known to me but I still play it safe and keep them disabled, It’s a simple Face ID into your phone to access all those menus anyway since all that disabling them does is to Disable them at the Lock Screen. In Privacy and Security I highly suggest disabling Allow Apps to Request to Track, this goes way beyond just Safari and in my opinion is one of the most important iOS updates next to Lockdown Mode. Many people also complain about battery life as well, don’t keep apps open if you are not using them since they are still running in the background and most likely are also transmitting GPS data, make sure to set GPS for every app to While Using in the Location Services menu in settings or alternatively under content and privacy restrictions in the screen time menu. It’s also not a bad idea to turn off Background App Refresh for Apps that don’t necessarily require it, in my experience I’ve really never needed it so I disable it entirely. Another thing to do is to go into content and privacy restrictions and then iTunes and App Store Purchases and Disable Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, and Optionally In-App purchases and Always Require Password. There are many other functions that improve security but in my opinion these are the most important.

 

[carolineM]

Been going through iOS 16 new features and I highly recommend that everyone uses Lockdown Mode. Doesn’t matter if you’re an average joe or a politician. If you don’t that’s on you, in a world of increasing cyber attacks you definitely don’t want your private information stolen and sold on the dark web. Don’t rely on having a simple password, use a complex hexadecimal password for your device login, use a good VPN that doesn’t log your searches, also add extensions to safari that improve its security if you use it, stay away from google related apps at all costs. You want to have a good ad blocker, tracker blocker and limit how much information about your device gets identified through fingerprinting. I recommend using tor related web browsers such as onion browser or alternatively Brave Browser to spoof fingerprinting, each has its own unique benefits. I also use OrBot app that doubles as a type of VPN Proxy and an extension for Safari to block unwanted adds, but be careful because it can cause issues with some websites. Also not a bad idea to setup Encryption on the device itself and block usb connections to external devices, this can be simply be one of the most important tasks that you can do since you will be prompted for your unique device password to connect to a pc. Another important feature to take into consideration is content and privacy restrictions under screen time, go through and enable/disable all the setting you want to adapt and then change from allow to don’t allow and create a 4 digit passcode to lock screen time. Something I wish Apple would do is let us choose to change the complexity of the password from 4 digits to Hexadecimal but don’t see that happening anytime soon unfortunately, it would probably be an easy fix, or password locking the files app which is also another vulnerability. Once you setup screen time some options will disappear and some will be greyed out, most importantly accounts will be greyed out and cannot be accessed until you reactivate it by simply going back into content and privacy restrictions and allowing it, Two things you should do in account before hand is going into iCloud and Active Private Relay and set IP Address Location to Use Country and Time Zone and Toggle it in, Hide My Email is another great tool to use to anonymize you on the web, not a bad idea to activate it. Passcode changes in the same menu as Account Changes set to Don’t Allow will completely hide Face ID and Passcode which is important for many reasons but mainly even in the event of a breach such as you walking away from your phone for an extended period of time someone may have access to it but wont be able to change key settings to your device, which brings me to Auto-Lock I recommend setting it to 30 seconds but if you’re like me and never leave it unlocked you can set it to anything you desire. Another important feature in Face ID and Passcode is Allow Access When Locked, personally I toggle everything off, if left on there have been numerous ways to bypass the Lock Screen without the use of Touch ID, Face ID and Password Lock in the past, whether or not Apple has addressed these issues is not known to me but I still play it safe and keep them disabled, It’s a simple Face ID into your phone to access all those menus anyway since all that disabling them does is to Disable them at the Lock Screen. In Privacy and Security I highly suggest disabling Allow Apps to Request to Track, this goes way beyond just Safari and in my opinion is one of the most important iOS updates next to Lockdown Mode. Many people also complain about battery life as well, don’t keep apps open if you are not using them since they are still running in the background and most likely are also transmitting GPS data, make sure to set GPS for every app to While Using in the Location Services menu in settings or alternatively under content and privacy restrictions in the screen time menu. It’s also not a bad idea to turn off Background App Refresh for Apps that don’t necessarily require it, in my experience I’ve really never needed it so I disable it entirely. Another thing to do is to go into content and privacy restrictions and then iTunes and App Store Purchases and Disable Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, and Optionally In-App purchases and Always Require Password. There are many other functions that improve security but in my opinion these are the most important.

The default iPhone Passcode is six digits, but you can set a custom numerical or alphanumerical password of up to a least 50 characters.

 

[Black_Heart]

The default iPhone Passcode is six digits, but you can set a custom numerical or alphanumerical password of up to a least 50 characters.

Somewhat correct, although the default pass is 6 numeric digits last time I checked an alpha numeric password could be up to 96 digits if memory serves me correct, but my point about only 4 digits is in regards to screen time which in my opinion needs to be beefed up to be on par with that of the actual device password.

 

[RobertCleese77]

Found some great info about face id and password. Thanks.