While Apple is busy convincing people that iPhones are the safest bet when it comes to the protection of users’ privacy and security, a recently-discovered nasty Wi-Fi bug suggests that iPhones and iPads are still quite vulnerable to hacking.
As reported by ZDNet, Software engineer Carl Schou has discovered a Wi-Fi bug, exploiting which a hacker can permanently disable the ability of your iPhones and iPads to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot. According to the software engineer, a specific network name — %secretclub%power — can cause this problem, and there is no easy way to fix the issue, unfortunately.
The software engineer, however, managed to restore his iPhone to normal by removing the malicious network name from his iPhones. It isn’t as easy as it sounds, as Schou had to go back to a backup and manually edit the file in order to remove the network name — quite a task for an average user!
And now, there is some good news. You can make your iPhones or iPads immune to this attack. All you’ll have to do is go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set the Auto-Join Hotspots to Ask to Join or Never on your iPhone and iPad. Now, your iPhones and iPads can no longer automatically connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot that requires no password to join, meaning attackers won’t be able to trick you into joining the malicious network.
Do this now to protect your iPhones and iPads!