iPhone users alert! This feature of Apple smartphone gives thieves easy access to your money, data

iPhone is usually considered to be a more secure and safe device when compared to those based on Android. However, there's a low-tech trick that can help thieves access target users' phones and their digital lives. According to the report, the passcode in iPhones is now giving thieves easy access to the data of users. Passcode helps users unlock their Apple devices. 

According to Wall Street Journal, thieves watch iPhone owners tap their passcodes and then steal their targets' phones and their digital lives.

The report said that a 31-year-old senior economist at a workforce intelligence startup lost all photos, contacts and notes in her iPhone 13 Pro Max which was snatched at a bar in Midtown Manhattan and about $10,000 vanished from her bank account in just 24 hours.

"With only the iPhone and its passcode, an interloper can within seconds change the password associated with the iPhone owner's Apple ID," said the report.

The victim will also be locked out of their account, which includes anything stored in iCloud.

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"The thief can also often loot the phone's financial apps since the passcode can unlock access to all the device's stored passwords," it added.

When the password change is complete, the software gives the option to force other Apple devices, such as Macs or iPads, to sign out of the Apple account. Therefore, the victim would have no option to regain access using these devices.

The report said that the Apple software would never ask the user to enter an older password before setting a new one.

With the new password, the thief can not only disable the Find My iPhone feature but would also be able to resell the iPhone.

An Apple spokesperson said that iPhone is the most secure consumer mobile device, and "we work tirelessly every day to protect all our users from new and emerging threats".

"We sympathise with users who have had this experience and we take all attacks on our users very seriously, no matter how rare," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

"We will continue to advance the protections to help keep user accounts secure."

Nearly all of the victims had their iPhones stolen while they were out at night socialising at public places, pubs and bars.

In all cases, the iPhone owners were locked out of their Apple accounts.

"They then discovered thousands of dollars in financial thefts, including some combination of Apple Pay charges, drained bank accounts linked to phone apps and money taken from PayPal's Venmo and other money-sending apps," the report elaborated.

The same vulnerability is there in Google's Android mobile operating system but the "higher resale value of iPhones makes them a far more common target", according to law enforcement officials.

"Our sign-in and account-recovery policies try to strike a balance between allowing legitimate users to retain access to their accounts in real-world scenarios and keeping the bad actors out," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Apple recently introduced the ability to use hardware security keys, little USB dongles, to protect the Apple ID.

With IANS inputs