New protection against loss and theft will be added to the iPhone

Probably, this function began to be developed after the article The iPhone Setting Thieves Use to Lock You Out of Your Apple Account / WSJ The Wall Street Journal reported that attackers began to monitor potential victims in order to find out the password code for their iPhone before stealing the gadget. This allowed them to reset their Apple ID password, disable Find iPhone, view saved passwords from iCloud Keychain, and more. "Stolen Device Protection" closes this vulnerability by adding Face ID or Touch ID verification for privacy-related actions.

Here are the features that will require Face ID or Touch ID when the new protection is enabled:

• View and use passwords and passkey from iCloud Keychain.
• Disabling the missing mode.
• Reset settings and data.
• Using payment methods saved in Safari.
• Using an iPhone to set up a new device.
• Viewing data about the Apple Card virtual card.
• Making a new Apple Card.
• A number of actions with Apple Cash and Savings (payment and banking operations in the Wallet application).

A number of functions will not only require Face ID or Touch ID, but also block new attempts for an hour after a failed scan. We are talking about such actions:

• Changing the Apple ID password.
• Update Apple ID security settings — including adding or removing a trusted device, phone number, recovery password, or recovery contact.
• Changing the password code.
• Adding or removing new Face ID scans or Touch ID prints.
• Disabling the "Find iPhone" function.
• Disabling the "Stolen Device Protection" function.

The new feature will be available on all devices that support iOS 17 — that is, on iPhone Xs and newer. Users of the stable version of iOS will be able to access it with the release of iOS 17.3 — this should happen in January or February.