iOS 17.3 Beta brings Stolen Device Protection to iPhone.
iOS 17.2 has just landed on most devices, now the beta testing stages are over. Without the dust settling Beta releases are out for iOS 17.3
It’s long been request the keychain / passwords and iCloud accounts on your iOS device are locked behind a different password to your device pin. If you’re unlucky enough to suffer a targeted attack and having your phone stolen, the thief has watch and learned your PIN number - you’ll essentially lose everything once they’ve unlocked the iPhone and gain access to your iCloud account - first by changing the password - then turning off ‘Find My’, removing devices and holding control over the iCloud account and kicking you out.
To stop this, Apple will roll out the standout feature so far in 17.3 ‘Stolen Device Protection’, in simple terms it’s an airlock for changing critical security information when you’re outside trusted locations which can be set as Home or Work. When you go to change a settings or make changes to aspects of your iCloud account, the device protection will kick in.
The first stage after biometric unlocking is an hour delay on the device before you have to unlock and confirm again with biometrics, then allowing you to make the changes. The idea behind this is a user will have noticed their phone missing in this hour time window and activated lost mode within Find My.
There is no delay when the device is at a trusted location you can make the changes you need to, which makes sense. Most critical security changes to your iPhone or iCloud account you’re not going to be doing on the fly whilst out and about. The protection doesn’t covers day to day actions, like paying with Apple Pay which still has the option of a Passcode fallback when paying.
How to enable Stolen Device Protection for iPhone
You need iOS 17.3 beta on your iPhone. - Settings > General > Software > Public Betas (on or off)
Within the Settings app.
Scroll down and select Face ID & Passcode - for iPhone X and never | or Touch ID & Passcode iPhoneSE’s
Select Stolen Device Protection and enable.
It must be said the feature is in the early testing phases and will no doubt be improved during the Beta testing.
In regards to running Public or Developer Betas on your main and only device its 100% not advised, they’re buggy, functions stop working or don’t work as expected and its available for people to test and report issues - developers to test their apps on and people to get a feel of what to come on future iOS versions, you’ve been warned!