Can they get through your fingerprint or key lock? It’d be entirely useless to steal my phone unless you are confident you can unlock it in 10 attempts.
I never got it back but I also realized it was basically a useless brick. Is there any value in stealing an iphone/modern android these days? They are so locked down what's the point?
The only regret I had was I didn't turn on "Find my phone" because I'm so privacy paranoid but at least the password was a much more complex alphanumeric one than most people's plus w/o an icloud backup (pre-2023 before it became encrypted).
The police found caught him in-the-act with a backpack full of stuff from a house down the street so he's certainly getting punished. The funny part is the police saw him before he entered the house but decided it was worth waiting until he left to get proper evidence.
I was home at the time sleeping and so was allegedly the last family he burglarized. Which makes it feel creepier.
Can someone confirm if that is viable?
Certainly I'd imagine all smart-phone parts ranging from the camera modules, batteries, screens and cases are all worth money!
The logic boards might be tied to some sort of security?
I say this, as I use a small back-street phone repair guy who has drawers of various genuine and non-official parts for iPhones, and I've used him to replace smashed screens and camera modules!
It's true that Apple has paired hardware on newer phones, and that combined with Find My has really taken a huge bite out of how many iPhones are stolen, but Shenzhen is Shenzhen.
It is a mecca of technology, and you will find things that we'd generally otherwise consider impossible, like building your own iPhone piece by piece just walking around a market:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leFuF-zoVzA
So even if they can't take a given part as-is, they can always find something useful. We'd think "the logic board is paired so it's useless": they'd think "ICs X,Y, and Z on the logic board commonly fail and now we got spares".
There's been more than one case of stolen stuff ending up at the same place in Shenzhen: https://metro.co.uk/2023/02/02/find-my-iphone-app-discovers-...
Say they have an old powered down iphone with an alphanumeric PW (or a temporarily powered-on locked iphone). What's the realistic risk for a run of the mill burglary? You think they can bypass the PW prompts, exploit an up-to-date OS, and decrypt the HD with a vulnerability available to the general public? And local data on my old phone, ie, some photos and some old iMessages on my device are a serious personal/financial risk?
I already changed the (tiny) set of relevant passwords not-2FAd immediately and everything else relevant is 2FA'd. My SIM card was delisted immediately by my telecom after I found out and the phone theft was reported to a national hotline/database, so not sure why I need to "change" my (phone number-only) 2FAs...
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255800833252942.html?gateway...
I agree a run of the mill burglar wouldn't have the foresight to sit on your phone for years and years, since the value of breaking in probably diminishes almost immediately as you get a new phone, Wallet deactivates, etc. but it's not a reach to imagine that in a few years we'll see the equivalent of the current Cellebrite tech become widely available.
Yeah, it very much is a reach. $100 says it won’t happen, feel free to come back and collect within 5 years if I’m wrong.
To be clear, I believe there are vulnerabilities, just not they are as common or as easy to come by as you claim.
Does "dime a dozen" mean "6-7 figures USD per each on the global exploit market, with a dozen well-known regular buyers"?
That wasn't always the case though and thieves may not realize that.
But otherwise for some reason I didn't consider selling it for parts to one of those tiny cellphone chop-shops. I assumed since it was a valuable iPhone it was ultimately mostly useless to them as a non-operational phone, but I guess $20-100 for parts is more than enough.
Your government and phone company already track you. Turning on 'Find my phone' doesn't really add any more tracking on top, it just allows you to benefit from the tracking, too.
I specifically checked whether my phone disables access after many tries, and my phone does not. Phew!
Many people stick their credit card or ID in the back of their iPhone case as well.
I used to when I didn't fully trust Apple Pay, and when ID apps werent fully available.