VietNamNet Bridge – A high-level security feature designed by Apple for its iOS 7 system is often an inconvenience to Vietnamese users. Owners of the iPhones and iPad on which iOS7 runs indicate that they have no need for the feature.

The owner of Nhat Huy Mobile shop in HCM City, which distributed iPhone products, said a recent visitor to the shop logged in with his personal iCloud account and then left. The operation allowed him to “hijack” the mobile phone.

In this case, though the phone was still usable, it could easily have been controlled by the ID owner from a distance, who could have locked the phone or erased all the data.

As soon as discovering that the iPhone was “infected” with a strange account, he immediately “tracked down” the guest, the ID owner. He finally found the guest after learning his email and called for assistance on Facebook.

The guest then came back to the shop to remove his account.

The shop’s owner later put a signboard in his shop announcing that customers need to carefully check the iCloud accounts of their phones before leaving the shop.

According to Van, the owner of a mobile shop in Hanoi, this is just an occasional case. In general, sellers are always cautious when showing products to customers.

However, he said, troubles often happen with people who buy used iPhones. When selling the products, the old owners may forget to sign out of their iCloud accounts. As a result, the buyers cannot activate the phones if they reset or restore them.

“Apple has designed a new security feature for iOS 7. However, it sometimes troubles Vietnamese users, who don’t need such a high level of security,” Van said.

iCloud is a tool to store and protect information and locate users’ iOS devices, accessible with Apple ID accounts.

In the case of iOS 6.x, the predecessor to iOS7, this is simply a tool allowing one to store information on Apple’s servers.

However, things are different with iOS 7. In the event that an owner loses his phone, he can access the iCloud website, log in and turn on “Lost Mode” in Find My iPhone, or erase all the data. The mobile device would then be locked.

Meanwhile, after the operations of “reset” or “restore”, users would need to enter iCloud passwords to re-activate the phones. As a result, used phone buyers would not be able to use the phones if they don’t know the passwords set by the old owners.

According to Hoang Xuan, a technical worker at a mobile phone center on Xa Dan street in Hanoi, there is no effective tool that can help unlock iCloud.

He said that iCloud unlocking services advertised on the Internet, priced at up to $1,000, do not help.

The only solution is to intervene with the phones’ hardware. However, this method is discouraged due to the high risk. At present, technicians can only safely meddle with the hardware of the iCloud-locked iPhone 4s. However, the phones may lose their IMEI numbers as a result.

NLD