So, iOS 6.1 hasn’t been Apple’s finest hour. So far it’s been plagued with connection issues, battery woes, and now it’s sadly insecure, too. You can bypass any lockcode on an iPhone using this straightforward sequence of button presses. The instructions are pretty simple. First you have to pretend to turn the phone off, then make an aborted emergency call, then a quick bit of off button and cancel pressing. That boots you into the full phone app where you can pretty much call or message anyone you like, or edit phone contacts. It’s not the first time a trick like this has plagued an Apple device; a similar iOS 4.1 bug allowed the same kind of access. It was fixed with the release of iOS 4.2—which came out a month later. So if history holds true, it could be a month until we see this patched up.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.