How to Enable Stolen Device Protection on Your iPhone

For many of us, our smartphones become an extra appendage — we need these devices by our sides to fully function. We can’t imagine living without their consistent benefits, and we keep them on us at all times.

When a smartphone battery dies, or we leave our iPhones and Androids at home, we feel lost and confused… we might wonder how we’ll survive.

Inevitably, some of us will experience the worst case scenario — our iPhones or Androids will be stolen. As the cost of smartphones soars, and we use our phones to store our most valuable personal data, a stolen iPhone or Android can have devastating consequences.

For iPhone users, there’s still a sliver of hope, though. The latest iPhones come with built-in Stolen Phone Protection. However, this feature needs to be enabled in order to work.

What is Stolen Device Protection?

Apple unveiled the iPhone iOS 17.3 in January 2024, and offer many new, exciting features included with their latest smartphone model. One of the greatest highlights of this iPhone model (along with future models) comes via Stolen Device Protection.

If someone steals your iPhone and either hacks your passcode (never use 1234 as your passcode) or has access to your passcode, Stolen Device Protection can prevent these bad actors from gaining control of your Apple account or other accounts stored on your iPhone.

Along with the basic cybersecurity features included on all smartphones, Stolen Device Protection adds thick layers of extra security to protect your confidential information.

How does Stolen Device Protection work?

As an integral part of the latest iOS, Stolen Device Protection can be enabled and activated to provide an obstacle for thieves who target iPhones. This feature ensures that accessing your Apple account requires Facial or Touch ID authentication, and by using location data, may initially limit the functionality of sensitive applications if your phone is operating from an unknown place.

Stolen Device Protection requires you to log in with these authentication factors, and if you need to change important settings on your iPhone, you’ll have to wait an hour. The feature will then ask you to verify your identity again before allowing you to change vital settings.

This protection is a great anti-theft measure and deterrent for people who may spy on you to discover your iPhone passcode and then steal your personal data.

What thieves might do with stolen iPhones

According to Boston University, 113 smartphones are stolen every minute — that’s almost 59.5 million phones stolen per year. There’s a high demand for iPhones on the black market, and as the devices are relatively easy to steal, thieves may target you specifically for your iPhone.

Although this statistic includes both iPhones and Androids, it’s a staggering number and points toward smartphone theft as an issue that has the potential to impact all of us.

In Minnesota, a convicted thief named Aaron Johnson stole over $2 million after tricking iPhone users to give him their smartphone passcodes and then accessing their bank account information through their phones. Without cybersecurity features in place, iPhone theft can lead to disastrous financial consequences.

Nevertheless, Stolen Device Protection makes it significantly harder for thieves to do as much damage with stolen iPhones as they once could.

Some of the things thieves might do with a stolen iPhone include:

Hard reset your iPhone and sell it
Access your bank account
Access your iCloud and delete all of your personal files
Steal your identity
Commit fraudulent financial transactions
Hack your social media accounts and email
Steal all of your stored passwords

How to enable Stolen Device Protection on your iPhone

Although Stolen Device Protection is built-in to the latest generation of iPhones, you will need to enable it on your device before it can work.Thankfully, it’s a relatively simple process that won’t require a background in software engineering or IT.

However, it’s important to note that this security feature isn’t available on any iOS before the 17.3.

Apple Support has published the following step-by-step directions to enable Stolen Device Protection on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings, then do one of the following:

On an iPhone with Face ID: Tap Face ID & Passcode, then enter your passcode.
On an iPhone with a Home button: Tap Touch ID & Passcode, then enter your passcode.

2. Scroll down and tap Stolen Device Protection.

Note: If you don’t see Stolen Device Protection, you may need to set up Face ID or Touch ID first.

3. Turn on Stolen Device Protection.

4. Do one of the following:

Use Stolen Device Protection when you’re away from home or work: Tap Away from Familiar Locations.
Use Stolen Device Protection everywhere: Tap Always.

What happens when you turn Stolen Device Protection off?

If you’ve enabled iPhone Stolen Device Protection but then choose to turn it off, you’ll leave your device and data vulnerable to theft. Although you can disable the security feature, you should remain extra cautious about doing so.

Remember, thieves may be able to steal your passcode just by peering over your shoulder as you access your iPhone. Sophisticated hackers also have numerous methods to unlock smartphones that lack facial recognition or touch ID authentication requirements.

A new iPhone theft trend: What you need to watch for

Here’s an alarming iPhone theft trend that police are learning about, and victims too. It has to do with your iPhone’s passcode…the numbers you key in to unlock the phone.Here are some invaluable safety tips for those who have an iPhone, and who are active and actively on their phones:

Hold on to your iPhone. Tightly.
Also, make sure you unlock your phone primarily by using FaceID or touch.
Finally, and this is the most important part, if you have to enter your passcode to unlock your iPhone, do it in a bathroom stall, or on top of the roof or sitting in your car…alone.

Here’s why.

Criminals are noticing (capturing) iPhone passwords, then stealing phones (right out of your hands) and then stealing your money and memories. They don’t look like “criminals”—they look like nice people.

Sounds unlikely? Not where you live?

Well, it may not be commonplace, but unfortunately it is becoming more common in some places, especially in bigger cities, when people are having a good time.

Imagine this situation…before this actually happens.

Could you imagine this scenario happening? That someone you met had quietly, sneakily stolen your iPhone from you. Of course, you didn’t know it was happening or could see it coming.

Scary thought, isn’t it?

Then imagine this: once you ultimately realized your phone was indeed gone and missing, and after you started trying to get it back, you discover some things that shock you.

You have somehow been locked out of your own iPhone/iCloud accounts.
You come to find out you have bank accounts or digital money accounts that have been emptied.
A new Apple Pay account has been opened with your phone, and an Apple credit card and they have new, huge outstanding balances.
A few of your other bank accounts were emptied out.

The worse thing? There’s little you can do. Your iPhone is gone. Gone forever.

Real accounts of iPhones being stolen.

In a Wall Street Journal article from February of this year, they cited a handful of actual incidents where people who were enjoying a night out became victims of criminals on the prowl. Here’s a couple of examples:

One woman in Manhattan, New York, had her iPhone snatched out of her hand as she was leaving a bar after work. Within no time, the thief had locked her out of her Apple accounts, and she was $10,000 poorer.
A creative professional went out for drinks with his girlfriend after work while visiting Minneapolis. They made some new friends and had a great time. When he went to leave, he couldn’t find his iPhone. We figured to check things out the next morning. By then, has password had been changed, his Venmo account was drained for $1,500 and thousands had been charged to a handful of credit cards.
Another victim reported that his iPhone was stolen. Thieves had accessed his bank apps and Venmo, and had stolen money and made fraudulent charges. He said it happened because he was drugged while at a New York bar the previous night.

The question is…why is this happening and why this general method? Need to say password…

The iPhone theft trend. How criminals target their victims.

You’re out with a group of friends…maybe it’s a social get-together, a hangout at bar or a networking event. Lots of people, fun, strangers, conversation and alcohol too.

You meet plenty of new people, and one group asks you to share photos, or see your profile on LinkedIn, and is just eager to share data and contact information with you.

It’s all so fun and a good time, you think nothing of the interaction. Only until later, when you realize that you can’t find your iPhone anywhere. Then you start to wonder. Soon, you’ll be in a real panic.

The iPhone’s passcode (when you need to enter a number to unlock it) is the weak link in the security process. It’s an important aspect of this iPhone theft trend.

What you need to know about your iPhone’s passcode weakness.

First—a reminder that we brought up right at the top. Your face or finger, biometric methods, are more secure than a passcode you enter on your screen. There’s a simple reason:

If someone learns your password and has your phone, they can open any of your apps and control your phone as if they were you.
They can also immediately change your Apple ID and lock you out from all your accounts, while you’re trying to regain access to your accounts.
In the worst-case scenario—which is what this article is about—a stranger spies on you entering your passcode, then steals your phone.
Then they steal money from accounts linked to your phone, open new credit accounts (they link to your phone) and make purchases online using credit cards you have linked to your phone.
Lastly, and as a final insult, they sell your phone on the internet and make more money.

Protect your accounts, your identity and your phone!

We have a handful or articles on iPhone safety and other safety products and procedures. A few of them are very pertinent to protecting your accounts. Here are just a few:

Two-factor authentication: It’s important that you take steps to keep people from logging in to your accounts, even if they know your password.
Password managers: With a password manager you have a master password to an app that holds all your passwords. Crooks cannot log in because they won’t know that password.

Options for further iPhone protection

Even if you’ve enabled Secure Device Protection on your iPhone, you may want to consider additional cybersecurity measures that protect your phone service and protect you from identity theft and other issues. Here are some great options for additional iPhone protection to give you peace of mind:

1. LifeLock:

Available in the Apple Store, LifeLock Identity is an app from Norton that scans your iPhone 24/7 for possible cybersecurity threats and offers protection from all types of identity theft and online financial fraud.

2. Robokiller:

Tired of endless spam and scam calls targeting your iPhone? Download the Robokiller app to protect your phone. According to Robokiller, over 78 million robocalls hit US cellphones in 2022 alone. This app can help to significantly reduce these calls.

3. iDrive:

Backup is an extremely important step in protecting yourself online. Regardless of what security features you choose to enable on your iPhone, you should always ensure that your files are backed up and stored in a safe online space.

iDrive is an app from Apple that backs up the trove of data collected on your Apple smart devices. This security feature uses a private encryption key to offer the highest level of online data protection available for smartphones. With iDrive, even if thieves steal your iPhone, they won’t be able to access your files.

4. DeleteMe:

DeleteMe helps you remove your personal information from unwanted online spaces like data broker websites and search engines. Although not specifically created for mobile devices, DeleteMe can be downloaded directly onto your iPhone.

Check out the What Is My IP Address homepage for free tools to help further protect your online activity.