Apple warning: 1 BILLION iPhone users urged to change settings now over cyber fears

APPLE users are encouraged to use the iCloud Keychain on their iPhones for protection from digital thieves.

Cyber safety can be frustrating business but a “one password fits all” approach won’t cut it in today’s day and age.

When in use, the iCloud Keychain is an encrypted log of usernames and passwords on a user’s iPhone or Mac.

Apple also allows users to save payment information like credit card numbers and expiration dates for easy access.

To old fashioned users, storing your password digitally may seem like fool’s gold – “nothing beats the old pen and paper” some might claim.

But using the password managers like the iCloud Keychain can protect users from scores of hacking angles.

The iCloud Keychain can also generate an ultra-secure, completely unguessable password for new accounts.

One of the more common hacking techniques is to take advantage of users who have applied the same password to their entire network of log ins – in fact, repeating passwords actually led to the arrest of a felony-grade hacker in 2020.

The iCloud Keychain will automatically remember its auto-generated password and the site its associated with – the user will simply need to enter their iPhone’s password or use Face ID to have the information autofill.

While pen and paper might be safe locked away in a desk, if the page is simply different iterations of the same password then its not all that helpful against modern cyber attacks.

The iCloud Keychain is highly secure – ComputerWorld wrote the Keychain “is published by a developer with the resources to act quickly in the event a compromise is found.”

Apple Support pages tout the Keychain’s end to end encryption which means “no one else can access or read this data, either in transit or storage.”

Even Apple, who stores the data, won’t know your passwords – “iCloud Keychain stores your passwords and credit card information in such a way that Apple cannot read or access them,” the company said.

In the event a hacker is attempting to tap into your passwords, Apple’s failsafe is to put a hard lock on the Keychain.

The real owner will have to contact Apple and verify their identity – another reason not to use repeating passwords.

There are dozens of third-party password managers available on the internet and in the App Store.

While third party apps have their advantages, few can beat offer the integration into the Apple ecosystem offered by iCloud Keychain – not to mention the fact it is free.