Hey, everyone.
I'm Sharon Vaknin for CNET and today we found a pretty bad security flaw in Siri on the iPhone 4S.
If your phone ever gets in the wrong hands, anyone can activate Siri even if your phone is locked with a pass code.
All you have to do is long press the Home button and Siri pops right up.
From there, they can do a number of things like send a text,
ask for your friend's phone numbers or find out what your address is.
Siri will even display events on your calendar.
Check it out.
What's Chris Parker's address?
Here's Chris Parker's address.
Kind of freaky, right?
It's only when you try to do something like access an app that Siri asks for your pass code.
Give me directions to Chris Parker's address.
Sharon, I can't get
maps and directions while your phone is locked.
You'll need to unlock it first.
Thankfully, though, there is a fix for this.
At the Settings, General, Pass Code Lock, enter your pass code and switch Siri to Off where it says "Allow Access to Siri when Locked with a Pass Code." Now, your phone is actually protected.
Of course by doing this, you lose the ability to quickly complete tasks with Siri when your phone is locked.
But the choice between security and convenience is
up to you.
For more How To's and security tips, visit howto.cnet.com and feel free to send me any questions on Twitter or my Facebook page.
For CNET, I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll see you on the interwebs.
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