Any device that surfs the internet needs careful protection to prevent external people from accessing it, which causes quite a few problems. Well-known are the cases where various celebrities have faced cyber attacks, with private photos and videos scattered all over the internet. To avoid similar attacks, you often have to follow small and simple tricks that can make a difference. In this article, we’ll look at 5 iPhone features to protect against malicious parties, adding some helpful tips.
- password
Let’s start with the basics: the password is the most sensitive data of all, so having an optimized and hacker-resistant password greatly increases the security level of your iPhone. From iOS 12 devices, there is the option to automatically generate a password that is directly adapted to the device.
When you register on a site or app, our iPhone suggests a secure password, which can be saved by simply selecting the “Use Secure Password” item. You can also click on “Choose password” to enter your own. Remember that iCloud Keychain must be active to create and store passwords.
The importance of the password is often underestimated, but setting an adequate password should be a must these days.
- Position
Many users are concerned that their location may be tracked by some installed apps that work in the background. With iOS 14 devices, you can solve this problem by not specifying your exact location. To do this, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Settings. At this point, just select an app that you think is suspicious and disable the “Exact location” item.
From now on you are no longer suspicious and you can use your favorite apps without doubting a possible tracking of your location.
- Network security
Also on iOS 14 devices it is possible to activate DNS encryption to improve network security and surf safely. In Settings > Privacy > Location Tracking, there are also other options to protect your device online when connecting to a local network. You can even set a private IP address to access Wi-Fi.
To advise: From a network security point of view, both iPhone and Android still have a long way to go, so using a free or paid VPN, specializing in online security, greatly improves the level of security of your device while browsing the web.
- biometric data
We know that there are Touch ID and Face ID on modern Apple devices, with the latter being definitely the more secure of the two according to Apple. Apple is constantly revolutionizing these features to make its users feel safe by allowing them to access various services by using them. Configuring both is essential to prevent third-party access to the device.
- Access code
One of the most common mistakes made by iPhone users is the wrong passcode setting. Passcodes such as “123456” certainly do not guarantee a high level of security, so it is important to set an adequate Passcode. The advice is to select an alphanumeric code for your passcode by going to Settings > Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode for older iPhones). Now go to the passcode settings and set an alphanumeric code (the best of the three options, the other two are numeric code and 4 digit code).
We have seen how simple precautions are actually essential to ensure the safety of our iPhone. Apple has recently released news about iOS 15 and these options may change or improve gradually. For now, though, we have to rely on these resources to feel safe, putting laziness aside for hacker-resistant privacy.