Q: iPhone passcode hack and iCloud account access. That fast and easy?

A couple of days ago, my iPhone 5s was stolen/pickpocket while I was on vacation. And this incident happened to me on the last day of my vacation.

The moment I discovered my phone was missing, I went to report the incident to the local police and proceed to call my carrier company to suspend the line. It took about 2 to 3 hours to get all of that done. And the next thing I wanted to do was to log into iCloud.com to use "Find my iPhone" to try and lock the phone and erase whatever information was on my iPhone. But there wasn't any computer that I could use or access at that time and I was also running late to catch my flight back home. Once I reach home, the first thing I did was turn on my iMac wanting to log into iCloud.

To my horror, I realised that my iMac has been locked by someone else and requires a 4 digit passcode to be unlocked. I tried several times entering different codes but still failed to unlock my iMac. I then borrowed my brother's computer (Non Apple) to try to log into iCloud.com and the email account that my apple ID was linked to. In my email inbox, I saw that a request was sent by someone other than me to reset my Apple ID password.

What I did next was to reset my apple ID password in order to log onto iCloud.com. Under "Find my IPhone", I realised that my iPhone has been removed and I could no longer track or locked it remotely. And my iMac was locked too. I tried to call Apple support for assistance but the service happen to be closed for the day.

My Apple ID password was changed, email account and iCloud were all accessed in less than 6 hours from the time I discovered my iPhone was stolen.

After this happened to me, I started to google if there is a possibility for the iPhone passcode to be hack without resetting the phone.As I was really concerned about all my personal information been compromised in the process.

And my point of view is that the person might have either guess my passcode or use other means to unlock my iPhone without having to reset it and access my email to have my apple ID password reset and accessed my iCloud to remove my iPhone from it and locked my iMac. It got me thinking what is stopping this person from accessing information on my iCloud and email since he/she has full access to them during that time.

Here is the link for common iPhone passcode used link for ways to unlock passcode on iPhone.

http://ios.wonderhowto.com/how-to/thieves-unlock-passcodes-stolen-iphones-and-pr otect-yourself-against-it-0139559/

http://www.maravis.com/most-common-iphone-passcodes/

Im sharing my experience with whoever read this to please check your settings on your phone properly and really understand how to use iCloud and how it works and any possible potential security issues to try to minimise the chances of having your iPhone passcode hacked or at least make it harder for someone to unlock your phone if you happen to lose or drop or phone and losing important information in the process.

Here is an article on more information on "Find my iPhone/imac etc"

iCloud: Troubleshooting Find My iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac - Apple Support

For the last couple of days, I have been taking time and effort to call up credit cards company, banks etc trying to check if there were usual transactions and so on. I also had to bring my iMac to an authorised service provider as advised by Apple Support to get it unlock. By the  way, my iMac is under apple care but I was told that issues regarding security and passwords are NOT COVERED UNDER APPLE CARE WARRANTY.

I have got a new primary email address and remove the old email account which has been compromised and have the new email address registered in "Manage my Apple ID" at https://appleid.apple.com/. And has disable the previous email account from ITunes and App store. I have also changed my mobile number.

I have feedback the problem and frustrations Im having to Apple and still trying to get help from Apple to try to lock the phone or erase information stored on my stolen phone but apparently once it is removed from "Find my iPhone" there is no way to do it. And so far Apple keeps telling me that there is NO WAY that the passcode can be hacked without reseting it which I believe is not 100% true. I am really annoyed with the fact that Apple support keeps telling me that there is no security issue with the iPhone but problem lies with security on my email account linked to my Apple ID and its not their problem.

I'm considering to further escalate the matter but I'm not really sure what else I can do now. Any suggestions?

Would you still buy Apple phone if this happens to you?