Apple Looking Into New Proactive Security Measures for Stolen iPhones

[Maura]

AppleInsider reports today that it has discovered a patent application that was previously filed by Apple and made public this week, entitled “Proactive Security for Mobile Devices,” which posits various customised security options for iPhones. One idea put forward in the patent is that in the event that a person’s iPhone is stolen or lost, the owner could elect to scramble or delete specific data on the missing phone, such as e-mail, contacts and stored passwords. Or, the owner might actually be able to lock-out anyone else, such as a thief, from accessing certain phone features, possibly barring them from making calls or accessing Wi-Fi on the device.

Another feature proposed by the patent application is the ability to use your iPhone to automatically change VPN settings to prevent security being breached on a company network as soon as a threat is detected.

Some of the details of the proposed features actually sound very dramatic and like something out of a movie, such as the ability to have the missing iPhone display an alert demanding that whoever has it enters a secure password within 60 seconds, otherwise location data will be sent back to the owner. Or, even more impressively, the stolen iPhone could be set to record images and audio automatically to give clues to its whereabouts to the police. How cool would that be?! In the application, Apple notes that it is looking to introduce features that are a lot more sophisticated than a remote wipe, which is usually the method of last resort, whereby you protect your data from prying eyes, but you also lose it as well.

Source: AppleInsider | Apple exploring 'proactive' iPhone security methods for stolen hardware