If an iPhone is stolen, and it's password protected, is there any way they can access the files and apps on the phone?

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July 14th, 2010 - Posted by Kent

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: If an iPhone is stolen, and it's password protected, with all these people that are hacking these days, is there any way they can access the files and apps on the phone? Or is the only way they can get on the phone is to restore and delete all the files? Please help!

A: As far as we know, there aren't any ways to hack the iPhone's password defense, even if the thief has physical access to your password protected iPhone. However, if the thief is able to guess your password, then they can access anything. You can lessen the chances of a thief being able to access your information with the following tips:

1) Choose a passcode that's hard to guess. Additionally, the new iPhone 4.0 operating system allows you to choose longer, alphanumeric passcodes. While they take longer to type in, the use of letters and numbers in a passcode increase the number of values a thief will have to try.

2) Enable "Erase Data" so that 10 incorrect passcode entries will delete the contents from your phone. That way a thief has to be really lucky, or your passcode has to be really bad, for them to get anything useful off your phone.

Keeping your iPhone locked down is just one way to protect your personal information. Since there's no password protection for your identity, consider investing in identity theft protection to help keep criminals from hacking your life.