Unlocking iPhones using Siri: Why didn’t the FBI think of that? Here is why...

Recent rumors fueled by cleverly staged YouTube videos, have suggested that iPhones can be unlocked by tricking Siri through a number of different procedures and voice commands. The claims have been thoroughly debunked by Cult Of Mac, with little effort, and owners of iPhones, iPads and other iOS devices can rest easy, knowing that if anyone breaks in, it won’t be an inside job.

Photo courtesy of BuzzFeed

It’s all in the hand... or finger

One of the videos mentioned by Cult of Mac was created by user CRBBX, who shows how his iPhone can be “unlocked”, simply by holding down the home button to activate Siri and ask “What time it is”, to bring up the clock, which, as the video tries to imply, leads the user to the unlocked home screen, through iTunes. Of course, CRBBX conveniently fails to mention the fact that by holding down the home key, Touch-ID had already unlocked the handset in the very beginning of the video.

YouTube user SocialStar picked up on the ingenious click-bait technique, and created his own video, emulating CRBBX’s visual trick. With that said, SocialStar chose not to go all-out with his own endorsement, and added a comment suggesting that this trick seems to work only once, mostly for those who really do believe in such ridiculous nonsense.

Other videos, however, seem to show methods in which the home button is tapped using a foreign object rather than a finger. While this might raise a few eyebrows, the trick is even simpler in this case. We just need to go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Require passcode. On that screen, setting the time is takes for the device to lock to anything but “Immediately” will allow to get to the home screen without any form of verification whatsoever, for a limited time.

By setting the iPhone as mentioned above, it’s easy to create the illusion that the handset isn’t already locked. The same can be performed on all sorts of devices including Apple iPad and iPod Touch.