What use is a stolen iPhone?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Typo Knig had the unfortunate experience of having his iPhone snatched from his hands on the Metro this evening. The thief hopped on the train as it was getting ready to leave, grabbed the phone, and hopped out.

We’ve already bricked it - it was passcode protected, which could certainly be bypassed with a little effort, but it’s tied to our Apple ID so it cannot be reset. It’s reported as stolen with Verizon, so the device can’t be reactivated with that carrier.

If the thieves manage to get it online (connected to wireless or cellular service), it’ll get wiped by Apple as well.

So: what can a thief do with the thing now?

Our concerns: If they hook it up to a computer, they can get to email (though those passwords have now been changed). In theory they could hack our password vault software, though that’s a pretty substantial key to decrypt. To minimize that, we’ve already changed the master password and are going through the painstaking process of changing Every. Farking. Password. That will take days, I expect.

Anything else we’re missing?

2

Check out the saga of Brother Orange from Buzzfeed.

There’s 3 or 4 parts to it. Be sure to read them all! :slight_smile:

3

An iPhone that is iCloud locked is a brick.
It can’t even be wiped and restored to re-use it as a virgin phone.
Assuming you’ve remotely wiped it, your data is not even on it anymore, so don’t sweat it.

4

I believe it can be hacked reused but another apple ID (or whatever it is called) must be used from another phone (like one that was destroyed). All data would be wiped.

5

They can sell it to unsuspecting buyers.

6

Hah - a friend told us about this just this evening, and I was hoping to find info about it.

From googling stolen iphone China, it sounds like there’s a very good chance it will turn up there, and someone will be able to hack it and use it. I do hope the data winds up wiped somehow. We’re doing a lot of password chances now just in case.