We’ll assume that you already keep your devices up to date, use FileVault on Macs, have at least a six-digit iOS passcode, have strong password habits, and use multi-factor authentication wherever possible. Other options are more specific to travel.

As with our more general article about increasing security last month, we’ve divided our list of suggestions into two parts: things that everyone should do and measures that only people who worry about being specifically targeted should employ.

Sensible Travel Security Precautions for Everyone

These suggestions are appropriate for everyone who travels, and they’re aimed primarily at avoiding relatively common problems: loss, theft, data loss, and generalized snooping:

• Focus on physical security: As a tourist, you may be targeted by thieves, so it’s important to keep your iPhone in a secure pocket whenever you’re not using it. Carry an iPad or laptop in a bag that can’t be snatched, or leave them locked or at least concealed in your hotel room.
• Enable Find My for all your devices: You should have already done this, but if not, enable Find My to improve your chances of finding a device you lose or accidentally leave behind. It might help if the device is stolen, but local police cooperation for recovering stolen items can vary widely. Don’t attempt to recover a stolen device yourself.
• Put AirTags in your luggage and laptop bags: AirTags can help you track down lost luggage—you can now share their locations with airlines—and prevent you from accidentally leaving bags behind. An AirTag may also help with locating a stolen item, but always work with local law enforcement.
• Enable biometric authentication and Stolen Device Protection: Using Face ID or Touch ID wherever possible and having Stolen Device Protection enabled on your iPhone in Settings > Face/Touch ID & Passcode is even more important when traveling.
• Use a VPN or iCloud Private Relay: Because you may be using Wi-Fi networks whose security you know nothing about, it’s best to use a VPN like Mullvad VPN, NordVPN, or ProtonVPN to encrypt all your traffic. At a minimum, use iCloud Private Relay, which requires an iCloud+ subscription and won’t encrypt traffic from most non-Apple apps.
• Use iCloud Photos or another backup option: To ensure you don’t lose precious vacation photos, use iCloud Photos so all your photos are uploaded to the cloud whenever you have access. This will almost certainly require an iCloud+ subscription for sufficient storage space. If Wi-Fi and cellular are too slow or unavailable, consider an external SSD to which you can manually export photos and videos for backup. To speed up the process, you could create a shortcut that automatically copies all photos taken that day.
• Use iCloud Backup: It’s best to use iCloud Backup to back up your entire iPhone every night. That way, if your iPhone is lost or destroyed, you may be able to buy a replacement and restore from backup in relatively little time. You will probably need an iCloud+ subscription to have enough backup space.
• Practice dealing with a lost or stolen device: If the worst happens and you lose one of your devices while traveling, you need to know what to do. Immediately go to Find My on another device or iCloud.com and mark the device as lost. If there’s a chance of getting it back, stop there. However, if you believe the device was stolen, your data is at risk, and tracking it is no longer useful, use Erase This Device in Find My to wipe it. Activation Lock will remain enabled to prevent anyone from reusing the device.

Increasing Travel Security for People Who May Be Targeted

Not all travel is fondue and gamelans. If you’re a journalist, activist, government employee, or corporate executive with access to sensitive data, you could be a target while traveling. This is particularly true if you are headed to countries like China, Russia, or others with authoritarian governments and powerful intelligence agencies. Along with the suggestions above, we recommend:

• Be aware of local laws and government practices: It’s important to read up on regional laws regarding data access and potential government capabilities at your destination. Knowing what to expect can help you reduce your risks and take appropriate precautions.
• Use caution with cellular access: Even if your carrier allows roaming, consider using a dedicated eSIM for international travel, separate from your personal one. That way, you can use local cellular networks without revealing your home number. Be aware that your traffic may be monitored.
• Enable Lockdown Mode: If you’re concerned about your iPhone or iPad being targeted by local law enforcement or government intelligence agencies, turn on Lockdown Mode in Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode. To increase security, it blocks most attachment types in Messages, complex Web technologies, incoming FaceTime calls from unknown callers, non-secure Wi-Fi network connections, and incoming invitations to Apple services. Plus, it excludes location information from shared photos, requires approval to connect accessories, and more.
• Reduce and protect your use of cloud services: While using a VPN is essential, you should still avoid using cloud services much if government entities might have access to stored files. If you need to upload files, encrypt them first using the free and open-source Cryptomator.
• Know how to disable Face ID and Touch ID: If you find yourself in a situation where you believe you may be compelled to unlock your iPhone or iPad with your face or fingerprint, press and hold the side or top button and either volume button to display the power off slider. This temporarily disables biometric authentication, requiring your passcode for the next unlock.
• Use dedicated travel devices and accounts: If you’re traveling to a potentially hostile part of the world, we strongly recommend carrying only devices—preferably iPhones or iPads, which are more secure than Macs—configured to contain none of your personal data or regular accounts. Keep them with you at all times, assume they could be confiscated, and be aware you might be compelled to share passcodes or other account information. Create a separate Apple Account for such devices.

Best of luck in your travels! With just a little preparation, you can reduce the chances that something bad will happen during a vacation. If you’re traveling on business to somewhere more concerning, putting in additional effort could prevent truly problematic things from happening.

For more information on all the great Apple products, features, and services, give us a call!  940-767-MACS (6227).  Or stop by MacTech Solutions, 4020 Rhea Rd, Suite 3B, Wichita Falls.  We’re open Monday thru Friday, 10am to 6pm

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We’re not here to dub one better than the other, but many people find themselves needing to upgrade from an older iPhone with Touch ID to a newer one with Face ID. If you’re trying to switch between Touch ID and Face ID, we have some tips to help.

Unlock the iPhone

Once the iPhone is awake (the screen is lit up), you unlock an iPhone with Touch ID by pressing the Home button. On an iPhone with Face ID, you swipe up from the bottom of the Lock Screen—a bar reminds you where to start—while looking at the iPhone. Face ID is fast and accurate enough that you’ll notice that authentication is happening only if iOS asks to verify your passcode (which it also does with Touch ID).

Return to the Home Screen

When you’re using an app on an iPhone with Touch ID and want to return to the Home Screen, you press the Home button—logical! On an iPhone with Face ID, you repeat that swipe up from the bottom of the screen action you use to unlock the iPhone. You’ll get really good at it.

Switch between Apps

When it comes to switching between apps, iPhones with Face ID offer a unique shortcut. On an iPhone with Touch ID, you must quickly press the Home button twice and then swipe between apps in the App Switcher. Bringing up the App Switcher on an iPhone with Face ID requires swiping up from the bottom of the screen just slightly and then continuing the swipe to the right. But Face ID experts seldom do that. Instead, swipe right and left on the bar at the bottom of the screen to switch between apps—it’s far faster and easier, if hidden.

Activate Siri

On an iPhone with Touch ID, holding the Home button activates Siri. On an iPhone with Face ID, press and hold the side button to activate Siri. Tomato, tomahto.

Open Control Center

When all we had were iPhones with Touch ID, Apple decided we’d open Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Face ID relies on that gesture for unlocking and opening the App Switcher, so on iPhones with Face ID, you instead open Control Center by swiping down from the top right of the screen. Think of it as swiping down from the cellular, Wi-Fi, and battery status icons.

View Notifications

Because iPhones with Touch ID use a swipe up from the bottom for Control Center, they can devote a swipe down from the top of the screen to displaying the Lock Screen with notifications. The same gesture works on an iPhone with Face ID, but you must start from the left side of the screen.

Use Apple Pay

Paying for a purchase with Apple Pay requires that you authenticate, which means placing your finger on the Home button—but not pressing it!—on an iPhone with Touch ID. Getting the hang of the touch-but-don’t-press action can take some time, but once you have it, you may even have developed a habit of not looking at your iPhone to authenticate Apple Pay. In contrast, with an iPhone with Face ID, you must look at the screen when prompted so the Face ID sensors can confirm you’re making the purchase. Honestly, neither is as easy as double-pressing the side button on an Apple Watch.

Authenticate in Apps

Beyond Apple Pay, plenty of apps from the App Store, like password managers and banking apps, tie into biometric authentication so you don’t have to type lengthy passwords. As you’d expect, if you previously authenticated by touching the Home button, doing so on an iPhone with Face ID requires looking at the iPhone screen. That’s nearly always what you do anyway, so it’s even easier than touching the Home button.

Register Alternate Appearances

With Touch ID, you can register up to five fingers, which lets you use several of your own and let a trusted spouse or family member authenticate using Touch ID as well. We tend to have more fingers than faces, though, so with Face ID, Apple allows only a single alternate appearance. That shouldn’t be too limiting, but if everyone in your family had a Touch ID finger, sorry, you’ll have to pick a favorite.

(Featured image by Apple)

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How does Face ID work?

Magic. Well, close. As science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Face ID is cutting-edge technology that uses Apple’s TrueDepth camera system to project over 30,000 invisible dots onto your face. Then it illuminates your face with infrared light and takes an infrared image. Finally, it translates that image into facial recognition data that’s encrypted and stored within the iPhone’s Secure Enclave (the data never leaves your iPhone).

Face ID updates its mathematical representation of your face over time to keep up with how your appearance changes.

How secure is Face ID?

Extremely. Apple claims that Touch ID’s false positive rate—the number of people who would have to try logging in to your iPhone before someone would succeed randomly—is 1 in 50,000. In contrast, Apple says that Face ID’s false positive rate is 1 in 1,000,000. It can’t be fooled by a picture or a simple mask, although a high-enough quality 3D reproduction of your face might get past it, just as a sufficiently good cast of your fingerprint could fool Touch ID.

However, Face ID has trouble distinguishing between identical twins and siblings who have nearly identical features. So if you have an evil twin, stick to a Touch ID-based iPhone or your passcode! The probability of an incorrect match is also higher with children under 13, since their facial features haven’t become sufficiently distinct yet.

By default, Face ID works only when you look at the iPhone X—it can’t be unlocked by your face when you’re sleeping.

How fast is Face ID?

Not quite as fast as Touch ID in current iPhones, but fast enough that you likely won’t notice. When you pick up your iPhone X so you can look at it, Face ID will, in most cases, have already recognized you.

This quick recognition is possible in part because the iPhone X can start scanning early, thanks to iOS’s Raise to Wake feature and a new Tap to Wake feature that automatically wakes the iPhone X when you touch the screen.

What if Face ID doesn’t work?

First off, things like wearing a hat, scarf, or glasses won’t confuse Face ID, nor will growing or shaving a beard. Thanks to that infrared camera, it even works in complete darkness. However, Face ID does fail occasionally. One reason for a Face ID failure is holding the iPhone X too close to your face—this is easy to do accidently if you’re nearsighted and not wearing your glasses. (Some sunglasses prevent Face ID from seeing your eyes, but you can work around that problem by disabling Require Attention for Face ID in Settings > Face ID & Passcode.)

To make Face ID retry a facial scan, hold the iPhone X at a normal viewing distance, tilt it away from you, and then tilt it back to your normal viewing position. If that doesn’t work, or if you want to let someone else use your iPhone, enter the passcode. Entering the passcode is always an option.

Alas, unlike Touch ID, which let you enroll up to five fingers (so family members could unlock your iPhone without using the passcode), Face ID lets you have only a single face.

Can I use Face ID for anything besides unlocking?

Yes, Face ID completely replaces Touch ID, so you can use it to authenticate when you’re using Apple Pay, or the App Store or iTunes Store. Plus, apps that previously relied on Touch ID, such as the 1Password or LastPass password managers, will automatically use Face ID instead.

We hope Apple can make the hardware necessary for Face ID cheaply enough to bring it to other devices as well. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could walk up to your Mac and have it automatically unlock because it had recognized your face?

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