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A stern warning to over a billion and a half Apple users: This is what you need to do

IPhone, iPad and Mac users note: Security researchers from Germany have revealed a serious security issue with the Airdrop feature that allows users to quickly transfer files between Apple devices.

This will allow you to turn off the feature and protect your personal information

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• iPhone

• Dark

• Cyber

Lego Fellow

Sunday, 25 April 2021, 16:06 Updated: 16:16

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It would not happen on Android?

In recent days, a stern warning has been issued addressing over one and a half billion users of iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Security researchers from a German university of technology have revealed that the popular AirDrop feature has enabled and still allows the theft of personal information, such as email addresses and even phone numbers.

The Airdrop feature allows users to quickly and easily transfer files, photos, videos and links between different devices - all through the use of Bluetooth and WiFi.

However, many do not know that in the wrong definition of the feature, outsiders may gain access to their smartphone, or otherwise, similar to the cases we have reported in the past, transfer malicious files and even pornographic materials to them.

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The feature, which is designed to compete with file transfer via Bluetooth, has become a real danger (Photo: Screenshot, Screenshot)

"As a matter of fact, this is not an impossible task to discover the phone numbers and email addresses of Apple users using AirDrop - even as a complete stranger," the researchers said in a statement. "In fact, all attackers need is a device with an antenna capable of receiving wireless internet, as well as physical proximity to the target device they want to hack into. . According to the research team, the problem lies in the system the devices use to detect other Apple devices in their environment, as they do this by checking if the sender's phone number or email address is in the contacts of the devices around him.

The researchers also noted that this is not a new problem with iOS and macOS devices, and they even warned Apple about this in May, in 2019, but the company never returned to them, acknowledged the problem or tried to fix it.

In addition, inquiries on the subject from media outlets around the world also returned unanswered.

Apple's lack of experience in resolving the issue and releasing an update to users has many implications.

More than 1.65 billion devices from the American company "are still exposed to an attack that can steal personal information from them."

The lack of response to the issue also raises the obvious question - will you ever bother to update the feature?

How to protect your information (Photo: Screenshot, Screenshot)

This will disable the feature

The way to stop this and block attackers from stealing your personal information is simpler than you think: go into your iPhone settings, click on general settings and then select AirDrop.

The screen that opens will allow you to choose between three options.

The first of these will completely disable the AirDrop feature, the second will only allow people in your contacts to send you files while the third and last will allow everyone to send you files, not necessarily with your permission.

It is therefore recommended that you set the setting to one of the first two options in the list, depending on your usage.

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