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Find my iPhone major weakness

D

DanR16

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 19, 2012
85
29
At the moment if somebody wants to prevent somebody from using find my iPhone they just need to power off the device. They can then boot it up in recovery mode and restore it and set it up as new! It would be great if you could provide an option so the iPad can't be powered off in any way before entering the passcode. It would also be good if when then the device is in lost mode and is plugged into iTunes (e.g. To restore it) iTunes would automatically record the location and refuse to restore so when the rightful owner logs into find my iPhone they can easily find it and hopefully get it back.

Obviously this is just an idea but you get my general goal: make it impossible to steal iThings! Any feed back would be apprechiated and if you like my idea (or have better one. Please submit a new feature request on apples bug reporter as that's the only way to get it!

Thanks,
Dan
 
Couldn't agree more. Always been baffled as to why a thief could simply turn the phone off, rendering find my iPhone useless.
 
I don't think the intention of FMi was to get back a stolen iPhone. More along the lines of finding a lost iPhone and remotely wiping a stolen one, to prevent someone from getting your personal information.

Sure, FMi has been used to retrieve stolen devices, however I don't think that was Apple's original intention. FMi is a double-edged sword. Just like using it with a wifi iPad protected by a passcode. If the thief doesn't know your passcode, they can't get it connected to a wifi source, you'll never find it with FMi.


The service is not perfect, its never going to be. And its not Apple's fault if its not perfect. Ultimately, it is YOUR responsibility to keep your devices safe and secure, not Apple's.
 
Just a guess but there may be some safety and/or legal reasons for not allowing a device to have power off. the legal department can be very sticky in areas like this.
 
But iOS 6's Find My iPhone beta version has an option once you've lost your device for it to send tracking information any time it's powered on. So even if the thieves power it down, if you put it in "Lost" mode remotely it *should* begin 'phoning home' whenever they do power it on again. And you can set a passcode remotely.

Wouldn't passcode to power-down be a bit of overkill?
 
Seems like false security to me.
Any thief who knows enough to wipe a phone and restore it should also know about DFU mode and how to enter into it.
I don't think Apple would ever disable DFU because then owners would have no recourse for catastrophic recovery.
 
I think with guided access in iOS 6 being able to disable the touchscreen and hardware buttons, you should be able to turn that on from Find My iPhone. I hope they implement this.
 
Gjwilly said:
Seems like false security to me.
Any thief who knows enough to wipe a phone and restore it should also know about DFU mode and how to enter into it.
I don't think Apple would ever disable DFU because then owners would have no recourse for catastrophic recovery.
Click to expand...

I agree, you have to also account for human error..it is real possibility that someone could genuinely forget their passcode and would need a way to recover their iDevice. Not everyone knows about or knows how to setup an iCloud account making it possible for them to track or wipe their device remotely. I know it sounds stupid that someone would do these things, but Apple's promise ofa "user friendly" OS and "it just works" tends to attract the less technically inclined..aka the idiots
 
Gjwilly said:
Seems like false security to me.
Any thief who knows enough to wipe a phone and restore it should also know about DFU mode and how to enter into it.
I don't think Apple would ever disable DFU because then owners would have no recourse for catastrophic recovery.
Click to expand...

I agree, which is why I suggested iTunes could send out the location of the Device when it's plugged in. It's just an idea, personally I think anything that gives me a better chance of getting back my beloved iPad has got to be worth a shot. :) I kind of thought it should be optional so you could just turn it on in settings.
 
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Or apple should add the ability of sending them the police report in which you report your iDevice stolen after which they brick it by using the UDID or whatever. They can easily do that when authenticating etc!
 
It's designed for misplaced phones, not stolen phones. Finding a stolen phone this way is fun, but it's just icing on the cake.

If someone wants to steal from you, they'll find a way. Apple hasn't elected to try to combat theft yet; just loss. Combating theft might be something they do in the future, but the fact that it doesn't yet isn't a "weakness"; it's just not what it was designed to do.
 
Morrus said:
It's designed for misplaced phones, not stolen phones. Finding a stolen phone this way is fun, but it's just icing on the cake.

If someone wants to steal from you, they'll find a way. Apple hasn't elected to try to combat theft yet; just loss. Combating theft might be something they do in the future, but the fact that it doesn't yet isn't a "weakness"; it's just not what it was designed to do.
Click to expand...

Exactly...but quick story.

Two men break into a friends house and tie up the husband, wife and two young daughters. Steal $100k+ of goods and jewlery including an iPhone and iPad.

iPhone is found on their street by the cops...look on the computer and track the iPad to one of the crooks homes about 10 miles away. As the cops surround the house, one of them kills himself and the other is caught and sentenced to 10+ years in prison.

Find my iPad indeed...
 
MozMan68 said:
Exactly...but quick story.

Two men break into a friends house and tie up the husband, wife and two young daughters. Steal $100k+ of goods and jewlery including an iPhone and iPad.

iPhone is found on their street by the cops...look on the computer and track the iPad to one of the crooks homes about 10 miles away. As the cops surround the house, one of them kills himself and the other is caught and sentenced to 10+ years in prison.

Find my iPad indeed...
Click to expand...

Light sentence :) Home invasion in my state (MA) is 15 year minimum mandatory.
 
Tats what i was thinking the other day when my friend got her iphone stolen! :mad: whoever stole it turn the phone off rite away cuz it had a passcode so I'm sure they couldnt get pass the code to turn off find my iphone.
 
Morrus said:
It's designed for misplaced phones, not stolen phones. Finding a stolen phone this way is fun, but it's just icing on the cake.

If someone wants to steal from you, they'll find a way. Apple hasn't elected to try to combat theft yet; just loss. Combating theft might be something they do in the future, but the fact that it doesn't yet isn't a "weakness"; it's just not what it was designed to do.
Click to expand...

Exactly. They know the IMEI and could do something about theft if they wanted to. But there are grey areas when selling phones aftermarket and proving who is the real owners.
 
I use power guard in cydia. You need to provide a security code for disabling (power off) the phone.
 
I am aware that find my iPhone isn't designed to track stolen devices, I'm simply suggesting it could be, that's the whole point.
 
DanR16 said:
I am aware that find my iPhone isn't designed to track stolen devices, I'm simply suggesting it could be, that's the whole point.
Click to expand...

Why not a simple toggle to allow turning off to require a passcode. Even rebooting using the home and power button could be made set a flag in the phones storage so that any attempt to reload new firmware via itunes on the reboot would need the keycode to be entered via iTunes etc.

I would like to see Apple seriously look at this ease of loading firmware on a stolen phone and rendering it useable once again (Until the carrier blocks it, but thats usually for 1 carrier or 1 country - send it overseas and that is bypassed).
 
daviddth said:
Why not a simple toggle to allow turning off to require a passcode.
Click to expand...

As i have said on some other post, what good would it be if a theif can OFF line the phone simply by taking the sim card out?

----------
dweezle3 said:
This is the main reason I jailbreak. The slight nuances and bugs that come with the jailbreak over time are worth the added security for me:
http://www.lovefortech.com/2011/10/10/iphone-4-snaps-robbers-picture-and-got-him-arrested/
Click to expand...

I just downloaded that app for 10 days trial and just tested! How clever and usefull! Definitely worth having it.
 
BvizioN said:
As i have said on some other post, what good would it be if a theif can OFF line the phone simply by taking the sim card out?
Click to expand...

Which is why iTunes should be used to send out the location when it's connected e.g. When somebody try's to restore to remove the passcode.
 
DanR16 said:
Which is why iTunes should be used to send out the location when it's connected e.g. When somebody try's to restore to remove the passcode.
Click to expand...

How would that help? Anyone savvy enough to perform the necessary steps to blank the phone isn't going to be connected to the internet while they're doing it. Find My iPhone/iPad/Mac works just fine how it is. If you want something more, look into Undercover, Prey Project, or any of the other apps that are branded as "theft recovery" assistants.
 
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