IOS – Stolen iPhone: what is the security risk

iosiphonekeychainSecurity

Unfortunately today my iPhone 6 Plus was stolen from my pocket on the streets of Sao Paulo. I did not have cellular data turned on. I had Touch ID and a 4 digit number lock in place.

How much data can an attacker get off the device? Presumably with access to the hardware he can pull off everything, but I understand it is encrypted?

In particular I am concerned about cached emails in the GMail app, and the Apple Keychain, which retains some credit card information and many passwords for internet sites.

About one hour after the phone was stolen, I received numerous password reset requests on my Facebook account. I have changed my master email password and Facebook login.

The iPhone never showed up on "Find my iPhone" and although I have requested a remote erase, I suspect that isn't going to happen.

Best Answer

Actually, the data on your iPhone 6 is encrypted at rest and furthermore no data comes off the device even if it is connected to a computer. Someone would need to brute force the PIN and then press Trust to trust a computer which would then be able to transfer off data or sync the device.

It's suspicious you got password resets. Perhaps the lock screen was configured to allow them to reply to messages or dial phone numbers or otherwise look at incoming mail. That would of course mean that the phone had WiFi or data connection - so in that case, the remote wipe is a good possibility.

I hope you get a response to the wipe, but you are in a fairly good situation all things considered.

Here are Apple's documents on how data is protected and what to do in the case your device is lost or stolen: