Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by malloc2048 764 days ago
I hope they will also add a feature that allows you to set a second pin code. That would be useful in case the thief forces you go give him your phone and unlock it e.g by having a gun pointed at you.

If that second pin code is entered the phone will go in anti-theft mode and e.g. hide specific apps, automatically erase it self or whatever you can think of.

6 comments

Something related is part of Android 15 Beta 2 released today -- "Private space lets users create a separate space on their device where they can keep sensitive apps away from prying eyes, under an additional layer of authentication. The private space uses a separate user profile. When a user locks the private space, the profile is paused and any apps in the private space are no longer active. The user can choose to use the device lock or a separate lock factor for the private space.": https://developer.android.com/about/versions/15/features#pri... (there is a known bug related to it https://developer.android.com/about/versions/15/release-note... that will be fixed in a hotfix in next few days.)
The fact that you need a Google account to associate with a private space moots the entire purpose of private space.
Some Airport security doors work like this.

At an old job, I was on a project at an international airport and was given one of those cards to get you through all the doors. Bypass security, get down to poke the planes, etc. Slide the card and key in a code to get through.

They gave us two codes: one to open the door, and another that opened the door and set off the silent alarm.

If someone pointed a weapon at me, I'd hand them my phone. There's nothing life-threateningly important on my phone. Whatever they do with it is better than death.
Unfortunately some people might try to do the math of losing their life savings vs. losing their life. Big downside of using a money system (eg: cryptocurrency) you can't reverse.
When I read this, I thought "come on, does that really happen?"

https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks

Automatically erase itself sounds good, but silent 911 call might be better than giving your attacker with a gun to your head a reason to pull the trigger.
It's literally in the second item under Section 1.
This is the kind of opsec feature that looks good on paper but could sometimes get people killed - even people that didn't actually set up a second pin (how do you prove to the guy pointing a gun to your head that you didn't set up anything like that??)