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Comment by marbletiles | Hacker News Reader

Muggers in the UK are now demanding the phone passcode on threat of violence. Having to give up the phone passcode (which also unlocks FaceID-gated apps like banking!) shouldn’t make your entire life vulnerable.

There are currently insufficient tools to deal with that situation

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> There are currently insufficient tools to deal with that situation

It will never be possible to deal with that situation.

Its also why many governments have taken to locking people up until they give up their passwords.

Its a scenario that has been immortalised in the famous XKCD wrench conundrum: https://xkcd.com/538/

The only real way to deal with it is to get away from the situation and remote wipe (or hope they type in your password wrong N times so local wipe happens)

Defence in depth helps make the situation less catastrophic. Right now, with just an iPhone passcode, you can take complete control of the Apple ID [including wiping the user’s other devices], any apps protected by Face ID (even those with 2FA if it’s SMS-based), private photos, notes, passwords, the works.

Those consequences are design choices - convenience over security. There could be features (tighter Face ID, multiple passcodes, etc) that reduce the blast radius of a leaked iPhone passcode. But Apple hasn’t implemented them. It hasn’t given users the tools to protect themselves, if they value that more than convenience.

A street mugger don't have the same motivation and means as a government agency. He just want to make some quick and easy buck. He can hit me with the wrench as much as he want, if I don't have the recovery code memorized because it's stored safely in my computer at home, he won't get it. He can point a gun at me and demand that we go home to get the code, but that's a different crime, harder and riskier. Most criminals aren't willing to go to that route. The only thing he can get is the 6 digit code that I have memorized because I use it everyday to unlock the phone. That's why this code should have limited capabilities.

Sure there are. Requiring Face ID and a second device to login. Whether or mornings practical is a second.

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