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Ask HN: How to make iOS more private and secure?
I’m looking for suggestions beyond the basic “use a password instead of a pin”, “use 2fa”, don’t connect to public WiFi”. I think I’ve got my iPhone setup pretty well, but I suspect I’m missing more than just a few things. Any suggestion is appreciated, I’m willing to at least try it.
- mooreed 7y agoI am not sure I fully understand your question. Perhaps restate some of your goals more concretely? Or link to a longer form post? For me, I can’t tell if you are looking for some architectural patterns you hope apple will adopt? Or for a discussion about DuckDuckGo, DNS over https, and VPN usage, Firefox focus, etc?
- Thorrez 7y agoI think it's fairly clear auslegung is asking about the second. Mentioning "my iPhone" and "Any suggestion is appreciated, I’m willing to at least try it." doesn't indicate that auslegung wants to make changes to how iOS is architected.
- mooreed 7y agoFair points. Good feedback. I was clearly “feeling grand” upon first reading it.
- evanrelf 7y agoOff the top of my head: - Change your DNS resolver to something you trust - Use a paid VPN service (bonus points if it disables your internet when it's not connected to the VPN) - Enable erasing data after several failed password attempts - Disable notification previews on the lockscreen / when locked - Disable Siri, control center, widgets, etc. on the lockscreen / when locked - Disable Touch/Face ID when entering a risky location (airport, etc.) - Disable location services, camera, microphone, etc. for every app you can - Disable sending analytics to Apple and app developers - Use a privacy conscious search engine (DuckDuckGo, StartPage) - Install a good content blocker (1Blocker) - Don't use apps like Facebook that violate your privacy That's all I can think of for now.
- liquid9 7y agonailed it
- mandeepj 7y ago> - Disable Touch/Face ID when entering a risky location (airport, etc.) Is it going to be a manual disable?
- geofft 7y agoYou can trigger Emergency SOS (aka "cop mode" - either to call them or to avoid them, tbh) by pressing the power button five times on iPhone 7 and below or holding side button + a volume button on iPhone 8 and up. Dismiss the prompt to call 911, and then your phone will be in a state where Touch ID / Face ID is disabled until you successfully use your passcode again. It appears Wallet still works so you should still be able to get to boarding passes without unlocking the device.
- sa1 7y agoDisabling iMessage and JavaScript in Safari would also help, given the recent Project Zero exploits we’ve seen.
- Gaelan 7y agoDisabling iMessage means texts go unencrypted. I'd say that for 99.9% of threat models, keeping it on is the right move.
- raverbashing 7y agoVPNs are debatable. While it's true they're a better solution for open WiFi networks, remember you're simply changing who has access to your connection data It's not so clear VPN providers, even paid ones have your best interests in mind For higher levels of security, it would be better the VPN was controlled by yourself
- lkurusa 7y ago
- kkbaxter 7y agoChange the name of your iPhone. The default name may include your actual name, which can be seen in more places than you'd think. Wipe/reset your iPhone every now and then. There is residual data left on the phone from app/data deletion (left over databases even). A factory reset will clear this, OS updates can help as well. The "Other" section of your iPhone storage is dangerous. Make sure the emergency feature to disable TouchID/FaceID is enabled. When turned on it kills biometrics until you put in your (hopefully unique and complex) password. Otherwise, biometrics is safer. Don't add any mail accounts to the native iOS mail app. Ensure that access to USB accessories while the phone is locked is turned off. Work only on LTE and your own private Wi-Fi (your job will have very complex monitoring tools like FireEye). Disable cellular data on any apps that you won't actively be using. Backup your iPhone to a secure location when travelling, wipe your phone and then re-build your phone using the backup upon arrival. Destroy the backup after. Don't open any shady URLs and make sure you always update iOS. Turn on auto-update. Security is critical on iOS as some apps have the ability to log you in or restore a session without any sort of credential check. This is despite the fact that unique device identifiers are not supposed to be used by devs. Protect yourselves!
- geofft 7y ago> Don't add any mail accounts to the native iOS mail app. Woah, I haven't heard this advice before—is the argument that the native mail app is less sandboxed than an App Store app? If so that makes a lot of sense (especially given P0's recent exploit chain involving an IMAP client vulnerability), sigh.
- kkbaxter 7y agoMDM related APIs change so often I just tell people to assume that all the native apps are less sandboxed. Another thing you can do is to download apps using one Apple ID, then login again to the App Store with a different Apple ID. The tricky thing about iOS is things are always changing, so precautions that might seem fruitless today may be critical tomorrow.
- 7y ago
- walterbell 7y agoIf you have a Mac, use Apple Configurator to set iOS device-wide MDM/security policies, some of which cannot be set using the on-device Settings app.
- nyolfen 7y agoadblocking encrypted dns: https://nextdns.io/ https://nextdns.io/
- praveenweb 7y agoI use AdGuard Pro in combination with StevenBlack/hosts [0] and a custom DNS. This is used for system wide (not just Safari) ads/tracker blocking. Adding custom filters as and when required. - [0] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
- skinnymuch 7y agoAny reason for this over Weblock?
- SHAKEDECADE 7y agoI like weblock (I believe were talking about the same by Futuremind) but I prefer their other app Adblock (I posted a small quib about it ~15 replies up from this reply). You can also, if you want; copy the PAC weblock sets up for you, host it yourself on github and then set it up as your own proxy for whatever wifi you connect to.
- skinnymuch 7y agoAh okay cool! I accidentally bought both. And wasn’t sure which to return. I’ll return Weblock then. The pac self hosting feature seems cool too. I’m just using nextdns now though so won’t be actively using any future mind apps for now. But good to know
- thornjm 7y agoPersistent malware is more expensive and has higher risk of compromise, and so it is used sparingly. A regular restart is a surprisingly good defence technique on an iPhone.
- thornjm 7y agoAvoid any low quality website willing to sell redirection or iframe based online advertising (e.g. online television, pornography websites). These can be a vector for exploitation attempts.
- pictur 7y agoUse android
- cosmojg 7y agoDon't use iOS. There is nothing private or secure about proprietary software. Plenty of free and open source alternatives exist. [1] [1] https://www.privacytools.io/operating-systems/#mobile_os https://www.privacytools.io/operating-systems/#mobile_os
- ecesena 7y agoThis was an interesting post, from a while ago: https://blog.filippo.io/securing-a-travel-iphone/ https://blog.filippo.io/securing-a-travel-iphone/