Apple’s stellar reputation for security took a few hits last week as celebrity iCloud accounts were hacked, and revealing photos revealed. How did that happen? iCloud’s security wasn’t as tight as it needed to be to prevent a little brute force door knocking on celebrity accounts.
With the arrival of iPhone 6, Apple can be expected to beef up security measures to prevent additional tampering with user accounts, and deny access to iPhone and iPad to unauthorized users. Here’s the problem and here’s how it can be corrected to provide ease-of-use and more security layers.
As is usually the case, the user becomes the weak link in most security issues. Who wants an iPhone with a 14-digit alpha-numeric-symbol password just to reply to a text message, or check Instagram. That’s the conundrum. Ease-of-use vs. tight security.
Enter my 5-step plan to perfect iPhone 6 security for the paranoid non-celebrity Apple customer.
Apple already has all the hardware needed in iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 models. Touch ID, microphone, and front facing camera. Put all the pieces together and a single iPhone app could easily provide near bulletproof security.
#1 – Touch ID: This works well and is not easily compromised. Touch your assigned finger to the Home button and you’re in. Fast and simple. Add another layer by adding additional fingers, to be touched in a particular sequence.
#2 – Voice recognition: Record a series of phrases or words and let your Mac listen to your voice and match what you say, both voice and keywords, to your recorded voice pattern and you’re in.
#3 – Retina scanner: – The iPhone already has a front facing camera. The built-in security app could be set to scan your eye– color, shape, size, retina, lashes, eyebrows– to provide another layer of security, which is enhanced even more if Touch ID and Voice Recognition are required at the same time.
#4 – Facial recognition: – Prior to your eye being scanned at the eyeball or retinal level, iPhone 6’s security app could also recognize your face using advanced facial recognition. Again, it’s an extra layer of security that can work quickly and automatically.
The security app should be set to require all four steps in sequence or all four within an assigned time period (three seconds, for example).
#5 – Keypad swipe: – Instead of using a four-digit password, or a much larger password, Apple could easily incorporate a keypad swipe; one finger, swiping across the screen in a specific pattern, which would unlock the iPhone.
That’s five layers of security, any one of which can be used standalone or in concert with others, applied in a specific order, or within a specific time frame, or both. Security problem solved.