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Big Brother Camera Security for iOS is back after App Store ban
Big Brother Camera Security is an intriguing free app that lets you know if someone is snooping around your iPhone. When you install the app you pick a passcode for your phone, and give it your email address. You'll get a confirming email with a code to validate it's you setting up the app, and once confirmation is complete you're ready to go. Once the app has been launched, anyone who picks up your iPhone is asked to enter the passcode. If they fail to enter the correct passcode, the camera takes their picture using the front-facing camera. They get another try, and the app takes another photo. Big Brother Camera Security instantly emails you both the photo and the location of your phone. It's a bit like Find my iPhone, but it provides a photo of who is currently playing with your phone, which I have to admit is pretty helpful. Of course, the app isn't just for locating a stolen iPhone, but if family members or coworkers are messing with your phone, it can help you catch them in the act. Big Brother Camera Security had a checkered career with Apple. We covered some of the controversy here at TUAW. Because the author was analyzing passcodes to determine which were overused and thus unsafe, Apple objected and pulled the app. Apple also didn't like the app mimicking the lock screen. After a lot of submissions and design changes, Apple finally let the app back into the App Store. I tried the app and it worked well after my first try delivered a distorted photo. I quit the app and didn't see the issue again. Digging deeper with the developer it appears the photos show up fine in Mail on iOS devices and in most third-party mail apps, but Apple has trouble displaying the images in OS X Mail. This issue will be fixed in an upcoming version of the software. Of course the app has to be running for all this to work, so you can't use your regular lock screen. Using the app locks your phone, but someone could reboot the phone and get around the app, so it is not as secure as the regular iPhone lock screen. %Gallery-183158% I could see where an app like this would be useful to many people. It's a clever idea, and might help you thwart intrusions into your phone. Big Brother Camera Security has been optimized for the iPhone 5 and requires iOS 6 or later. It runs on any iOS device with a front facing camera.
Passcode stealing app banned by Apple
Apple clamped down on the Big Brother Security App and removed the passcode-stealing lockscreen app from the App Store. Daniel Amitay is the developer behind the Big Brother app, which hit the headlines this week. The controversial app uses its own lockscreen and grabs the passcodes users enter into the program. Amitay compiled this data and produced a shocking report that suggests many iOS users have weak passwords like 1234 and 0000. Once the spotlight was shined on his passcode app, Apple took notice and removed the app from the App Store. Amitay believed he could collect the passcode data because it was not personally identifiable information. He is hoping to work with Apple to get his app back into the App Store, even if it removes this passcode collecting feature. In an altruistic move, Amitay claims he intended to use this data in the next update of the app to warn people of insecure passwords. [Via BGR]
Most common iOS passcodes discovered by developer
We're going to guess your passcode, the set of four numbers you use to get into your iPhone when you unlock it. Ready? Is it 1234? 0000? 1998? If it's any of those, you may want to change it. A developer named Daniel Amitay runs an app called Big Brother Camera Security that uses its own in-app lockscreen, and he's anonymously been tracking the numbers used there. Thinking that the numbers chosen for that lockscreen are probably similar to the main iPhone lockscreen, he's released some information about what people use, shining some light on what are probably the most common four-digit iPhone lock codes. It's pretty fascinating -- the easy ones to remember like 1234 and 0000 are the most common choices (just like 123456 and "password" are the most common real passwords), and there's a real trend of using actual years for the password, perhaps the first year you bought the iPhone or created the code. And the numbers were surprisingly similar -- 15% of all passcode sets monitored were represented by just 10 different passcodes, which means that if a hacker punches just 10 codes in and yours happened to be one of those, it's game over for your security. In other words, if you're really concerned about locking someone out, "1980" isn't going to cut it any more. [via BGR]
