Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, joins Squawk Box to discuss the iPhone passcode risks and how to be mindful of them.
The technique is people looking over someones shoulder and recording/waiting for them to key in their code. Then they steal your phone, use the code and lock people out.
No matter how secure the updates get, there will always be new ways to hack that, and human error will always bypass that. This is why I don't install financial apps and why I don't put all my eggs in one basket. And it doesn't just stop there at financials. Now you can use your smart phone to turn on your car, or even look and monitor what happens at your home if you ever smart home your place. Imagine the risks in that.
This is a load of hysterical hype. This issue has been well known for some time and will be comprehensively fixed with iOS 17.3. Two things: (1) Treat your passcode like your ATM PIN. When you're entering the latter do you stand back for everybody to see. Likewise if you're in a public place and you hold up your iPhone at eye level to enter your passcode then you're a moron who deserves everything you get. (2) Use an alphanumeric passcode. Yes it's a bit more effort but anyone who is looking will find it almost impossible to catch all the case/character changes.
