Premier Owl

I can not believe any Professional (Accountant/Solicitor/ etc) or indeed any business man walking about with an unlocked phone.

Most corporations insist on phones being locked - for no other reason that Data Protection...

ProleOnParole

I do. Locking is just an inconvenience, any security benefits are illusory. Anything that should be protected doesn't belong on a mobile phone anyway.

gfunkdave

This doesn't make any sense to me. Please explain. You don't think your email, financial info, or social media accounts are worth keeping from prying eyes?

LordHamster

The locking mechanism on the latest mobile phones ties into the whole disk encryption. With that lock, your data is as safe, if not safer than on a PC encrypted by bitlocker. While it isn't perfect, it is pretty darn good and far from "illusory" if used properly.

draver

Ditto this, as I mentioned before, the security on a 3 year old iPhone kept the FBI out of a terrorists' phone to the tune of a million dollars worth of security! I'll take that over the skill set of the average car prowler/ backpack thief any day.

WIRunner

At my previous job, we were all issued Blackberries (back when they were still the best for email and mobile enterprise intranet access.) We had no choice but to use a lock screen, it wasn't possible to set up the device without it. They later moved over to android, and at first no lock screen was needed (They forced us to use the horrific "Good Server" for email.) But when the IT department allowed native Exchange access, that all changed.

In addition to the phone encryption, I believe most phones allow you to set up a "flare" when it gets wiped. The lock screen also can be set to wipe the phone's data after a set number of un successful attempts at access. Google's Android Device manager also allows remote access to lock the device and wipe it. I don't keep anything overly sensitive on my phone or tablet, but even with the small piece of mind that is offered by a lock screen, I'll take it over leaving the device unlocked.

Premier Owl

@WIRunner - "At my previous job, we were all issued Blackberries (back when they were still the best for email and mobile enterprise intranet access.)"

I am the one that still uses a Blackberry

Jimmie76

I still use a BlackBerry too (a bold 9700) but I have an android too for the Internet and stuff.

Premier Owl

I am waiting for the new Blackberry android to be released...

KRSW

If someone gets access to your mobile phone, they've got access to your entire life now. Many websites now use 2-factor authentication, which is great, unless someone has your phone. If I have your e-mail, I now have your banking and investing accounts. A few quick wire transfers and I've got your money.

The guys down at the bad part of town don't seem to have any trouble resetting stolen IOS devices. I'm not sure how exactly they do it, but they do it.

I wish I still had my Blackberry Bold. After 3 years of various touchscreen phones, I still hate touchscreens. Give me the Blackberry keyboard any day. Also, for as wimpy as the hardware specs were, it amazes me how much you could push a Blackberry to do. Pandora, Opera browser, etc.

wco81

OK, show me where they're doing that, what bad part of town?

I lost an iPhone in Amsterdam. I did send my email address to the screen using Find My iPhone.

Then I got emails from some Eastern European domain, which was an obvious phishing attempt, a website made to look like iCloud, prompting me to enter my AppleID.

Maybe they can get unsuspecting people to enter their login and password that way.

Now there have been some claims here and there that people were able to defeat the activation lock but you're not hearing about them.

FBI couldn't crack the San Bernadino shooter's iPhone, tried to get Apple to help them do it but didn't. So they paid a lot of money to some specialist Israeli company, using a method which may not work on current iPhones:

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/fbi-c...work-one-phone

KRSW

Tampa, for one... They aren't able to get the data off the phone/iPad, but they're able to wipe them and reset them to be usable again. Not sure how it interacts with Apple afterward, but they've been able to make them usable in some capacity.

Jimmie76

Wait no longer, except if you're not in the UK.
http://www.androidcentral.com/blackb...dAUgK6yfTy2.97

Centurion

You succumbed to mis direction if you believed they could not get in to the Iphone. Its called misdirection in the magic world. They have plenty of exploits they want the public to think do not have.

draver

No they are not.

It sounds like you may be basing this statement on hearsay "On The Street", not personal experience.

I'd also venture that you have never had an iPhone and don't realize what is required to "Wipe" one. You need the password in at least two different places to perform a Restore function. Apple really clamps their systems down tight.