Boost the SECURITY & PRIVACY of your iPAD & iPHONE
MODERN DEVICES such as the iPad and iPhone have become invaluable for many people – not just because of the dollar value of the hardware involved, but more importantly because of the massive amount of often extremely personal or confidential data stored on them. That’s why it’s more important than ever to insure your devices are as secure as possible, and that the chances of someone being able to swipe your data are minimized.
Over the next few pages we’ll show you how to use iOS’s many built-in features to do exactly this – and offer some tips on what to do if the unthinkable happens and your iPhone or iPad is physically stolen.
Passcodes and passwords
WHEN YOU first set up your iPhone or iPad, you were asked to set a numeric passcode and enable Touch ID, to make unlocking the device and various other tasks truly trivial. If you set a four-digit code for the former, now’s a good time to reassess that.
By default, iOS 10 expects you to use a six-digit code, though it will allow you to use a shorter one. However, research has shown that the old four-digit standard is less secure than you might hope. It’s potentially prone to brute-force attack, and a would-be thief may not find it difficult to observe you tapping out such a short sequence made up entirely of numbers.
Even if you already accepted iOS’s prompt to set a six-digit passcode, you can boost the protection of your device and the data on it further still. You can set a longer numeric passcode that’s entered using the full on-screen keyboard, which might make it harder for someone to spy over your shoulder.
You also have the option of using a password that contains a mix of numbers, letters, and special symbols. That’s considered good practice for protecting a Mac, PC, or website account, though you may find iOS’s on-screen
