New to iOS, worried about the security of your iPhone or iPad, and wondering how to set a Passcode Lock for better protection? While the current version may not be perfect, it provides a number of real advantages over just leaving your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad unlocked. It’s also easy to set up. here’s how:

Simple 4-digit Passcode Lock

To simple, 4-digit Passcode Lock:

• Open Settings
• Tap on General
• Tap on Passcode Lock

• Tap Turn Passcode On

• Enter a four digit passcode

• Re-Enter the same passcode again to confirm

Strong alphanumeric Passcode Lock

If 4 numbers just doesn’t make you feel secure enough, you can switch to a stronger, alphanumeric Passcode.

• Open Settings
• Click on General
• Click on Passcode Lock
• Slide Simple Passcode to Off
• Type your new passcode in the box, this can now be anything you like

• Re-Enter the same passcode again to confirm

Siri and Passcodes

The iPhone 4S’ voice control system, Siri, has the ability to bypass Passcodes for some functions, like making calls or sending messages. If you consider this a security risk, you can toggle it off from the same screen.

Erase Data

At the bottom of the page, you have an option to Erase Data in the event of ten incorrect passcode entries.

If you have small children who think it’s a fun game to tap away at the numbers while your phone turns red, you may not want to enable this or you’ll be restoring your phone a lot. Security is constantly at war with convenience, make your choice.

Data Protection

Once you’ve enabled a Passcode Lock on an iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch 4, or iPod touch 3, you get the added benefit securing the hardware encryption keys. This makes everything from email to App Store apps more secure.

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Interested in how to enable data protection on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? The good news is that if you use a passcode, iOS 4 data protections protects the hardware encryption keys on your device, making email, attachments, and 3rd party apps (if they enable it) much more secure. The bad news is, if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4, data protection might not have been turned on even with the passcode. Not to worry, we’ll walk you through all the possibilities, after the break!

[Apple KB via TidBITS]

How to set a passcode

If you haven’t got a passcode lock set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, that’s the place to start.

• How to set up a passcode lock

Bonus Tip: You can set your passcode lock to automatically erase your device after 10 failed attempts. That’s great if you ever lose your device but if you have young children who can get ahold of it, you might find yourself restoring your wiped device with frustrating frequency. Security is constantly at war with convenience, make your choice.

How to set a stronger passcode

With iOS 4 you can switch the passcode from simple 4-digit numeric to full on alphanumeric for seriously stronger protection.

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
• Switch the Simple Passcode toggle to OFF
• Enter your current 4-digit numeric passcode to verify
• Enter a new, strong alphanumeric passcode

A combination of numbers, letters, and symbols is good, pseudorandom is even better but the difficulty in remembering it probably outweighs any benefit.

How to check for data protection

Now that your passcode is enabled, check to make sure you have data protection on. (It should be on by default for all iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and iPad 2 devices, but if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4 it might not be.)

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
• Scroll down to the very bottom and look for the text “Data protection is enabled”

If it’s there, you’re good to go. If not, keep reading!

How to enable data protection if it’s not on by default

Remember, this is only for iPhone 3GS (2009), iPod touch 3 (2009), and original iPad (2010) if “Data protection enabled” isn’t showing up on the Settings screen.

• Restore your device from backup

Make sure you backup your device before restoring, then choose restore from backup to get all your data back onto your device. Once it’s done, sync and then check the Setting screen again to make sure data protection is now enabled.

Phew!

If you have any questions or any other data protection tips, leave them in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

It looks as if there’s yet another Phone.app security hole, this time in iOS 4.1 that allows someone to get around a passcode locked iPhone, gain access to the owner’s contact list, make calls and send emails to anyone in said contact list.  From MacStories:

“To reproduce the bug, make sure to have a passcode lock turned on and lock your device. In the lockscreen, tap on Emergency Call in the lower left corner. Now type a non-existent emergency number, I tried #946494. Start the call, and as soon as the red button appear hit the sleep button. You’ll be brought to the contact list.”

The issue will most-likely get patched by Apple in the 4.2 update coming later this month, but it’s not the first time the emergency call screen has been exploited. Both iOS 2.1 and iOS 2.0.2 suffered from passcode lock bugs. Hopefully Apple pays extra attention and really secures Phone.app this time.

We were able to recreate the issue in the video above.  Any readers out there seeing the same results?  Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below!

UPDATE: This bug appears to already be fixed in iOS 4.2 beta, which is due to be released in November.

[MacStories]

by Andrew Wray

Apple’s MobileMe News “blog” is touting a new feature: you can now remotely set a passcode lock with Find My iPhone and iPhone 3.1:

With Find My iPhone, you can help protect the information on a missing iPhone by remotely assigning a four-digit passcode lock. This is especially useful if you’ve never set a passcode before or if you want to set a new one.

This is a nice half-way ground between leaving it wide open, or having to wipe it clean, if you can’t find it but aren’t sure you’ve permanently lost it.

And, again, it shows MobileMe is all about the incremental update. Very incremental…

A lady in the UK had her gear bag stolen, including her iPhone, laptop, and Nintendo DS, and to rub salt on her wounds, the thief decided to mock her on her own Facebook page:

“I have the laptop, phones ok but a bit scratched itll do, tv was rubbish so I left it , ds was a bonus, now to the porn shop, thankyou toshiba is my favourite make”.

While we hope the thief gets every ounce of karma (and justice) returned to him/her, we also echo Gizmodo‘s hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to enable the passcode lock (and Remote Wipe if you’re an Exchange or MobileMe user) on the iPhone, and BIOS/Login passwords on the laptop. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of curses later…

[Telegraph via TechRadar]

Welcome to iPhone 101, the best place for those of you who are new to the iPhone to learn the basics.

We all worry about misplacing our precious phones or, worse yet, having them stolen. Some may even worry about snoopers trying to read our private info when we’re not looking. In case one of these things happen, you should really consider protecting all of your personal data on the device. TiPb has got you covered, to see how to passcode lock your iPhone read on after the break!

From the homescreen, tap the Settings icon. From there you will want to press the General tab.

Once you are within the general settings tab you will see Passcode Lock is set to off.

Now tap Passcode Lock and you will be prompted to enter a four digit passcode.

After entering your four digit code you will now see the following options.

• Require Passcode: allows you to select a time period that has to pass before the lock is enabled. If you don’t want to have to enter your code too frequently but still want some protection, you can set this to 15 minutes or even 1 hour or more.

• Show SMS Preview: on by default, this shows incoming text messages on your homescreen. Turning this feature to off will only display “New Text Message” on the home screen, which can keep the identity of your texter safe from snooping eyes if that’s a concern.

• Erase Data: simply erases all data on your iPhone after 10 failed passcode attempts. This is the nuclear option, but if you’re really worried about losing your iPhone and have really important data on it, it can be something to consider.

Once you have configured your settings as you see fit, tap your home button to exit and that’s all there is to it. You have successfully passcode locked your iPhone. It’s as simple as that.