Apple Watch security flaw makes device easy to steal

Now that people have started receiving their Apple Watches, they are of course going to become a target for thieves. With a new security flaw exposed, it’s about to get a whole lot easier.

When you have an Apple Watch off the wrist, holding down the side button brings up a menu to turn off, power reserve, or lock device, unless your device is passcode locked then it will say “device locked” instead. Apply a force touch to the bottom of the screen and slide up. It will then give you the option to Erase all content and settings or cancel. When you tap Erase all content an Settings, it will simply prompt you to connect to a power source. Do that and the device will restore and prompt you to pair to a new iPhone.

Unlike other Apple devices which will prompt you for your password to the Apple account which the device is associated to, it just simply restores and prompts you to set it up.

Just to test the theory, I went to an Apple Store. I work near it, so most of the employees know me. One of them handed me their Apple Watch, and I tested it out. Sure enough it restored and prompted me to set it up as a new device. I set it up with my iPhone 6 Plus just fine. I then repeated the process and allowed the employee to set it back up with her phone.

Hopefully in the coming days, Apple will release a software update that will add the iCloud lock feature so that security flaw is now more

 

Zac Murphy

Zac Murphy is a huge geek. He is a photographer, graphic designer, and filmmaker. He loves to search the web and report on tech news.

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