Apple is reportedly taking drastic measures to ensure that the items contained within your iPhone, stay in your iPhone.
Last month, it was discovered that iOS 11 will contain a new feature which would allow the owner of the iPhone to tap the home button five consecutive times to disable the Touch ID. This option would prompt anyone trying to access the device to enter a passphrase. If you ever encounter a situation where an officer demands that you submit your fingerprint to use your iPhone, they can’t necessarily require you to hand over your password as well.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, the user could quickly hit the power button five times in order to call 911. And Apple didn’t stop there when it came to securing your smartphone if it were to end up in the wrong hands. According to digital forensic tool manufacturer ElcomSoft, whenever someone tries to currently access your iPhone by plugging it into a computer, they’re presented with a prompt, asking them if they trust the device. The latest operating system will now become a two-step process.
“Without first pairing the iOS device to a computer, experts will be unable to make a local backup of the device,” ElcomSoft writes in their blog post. “This in turn would leave iCloud as the only remaining acquisition option.” While officers can still look through your text messages, emails, etc., they wouldn’t be able to pull everything from your smartphone and store it somewhere else.
iOS 11 will reportedly start rolling out next month.