We always hear about the potential danger of your phone or emails getting hacked, but it never feels like it’s an immediate, ‘actually going to come and get ya’ kind of danger, does it? You know the drill – don’t use your birthday as a password, always sign out when you’re logged in on an unfamiliar machine and basically just don’t do anything stupid with your personal information.
But let me ask you a question. Hands up who actually updates their iPhone straight away when that annoying notification pops up to tell you that the latest software is available to download? Not many of us I imagine. I get it, I have far too much of an attachment to my phone so the prospect of it being out of action for any amount of time is terrifying.
It might be time to suck it up, get over the fear and hit update because I don’t mean to alarm you, but your phone is probably pretty vulnerable right now.
Researchers from Cisco’s Talos security team have found that there are a number of ‘vulnerabilities’ within the current Apple software that leave your phones, iPads and iPods open to hacks, reports Metro.co.uk.
A TIFF image processing bug (a format that pictures can be saved in) is the easiest bug for hackers to take advantage of. Apparently it’s within the current (unupdated) version of software, iOS 9.3.2, and could potentially be found in all previous versions.
The good news is that to wipe the threat, you can simply update to the latest software - iOS 9.3.3 - that was released earlier this week.
The worrying thing is though, according to Talos the number of devices that are affective is ‘significant’, which is not a word you really want to hear in this sort of situation.
The experts have also said that you might not even realise that you’ve been hacked, which yep, is indeed a little more worrying. They told Metro: ‘vulnerability is potentially exploitable through methods that do not require explicit user interaction’.
Which basically means hackers can get into a device through things like an iMessage or email without you knowing, breaking Apple’s various security measures and being able to access personal information and take control of your phone, iPad or iPod.
There’s bad news for iPhone 4 and owners of older models though. Sorry guys but unfortunately these phones can’t access the update so could be at risk to hacks, so maybe be extra careful with the information you store on your phone. But team iPhone 5 and beyond, get over to Settings and get updating.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.