As what security experts would say, the best way to protect yourself from identity theft and privacy breach is to know how crackers do their crimes. Below are the different ways hackers or crackers can reset your iPhone for it to be sold again. Also in it are ways on how to counter these different means so you and your iPhone stays safe.

The Brute Force Method

This method is the first but the hardest way to gain access to stolen iPhones. It’s just trying a bunch of passcodes at least 6 times until you get the right one. Six tries is more than enough for experienced thieves to unlock your iPhone and see what’s inside it. Scary, right?

These are the top 10 passcodes you should try to avoid. It’s easy to guess and a lot of hackers know about it.

1. 1234

2. 0000

3. 2580

4. 1111

5. 5555

6. 5683

7. 0852

8. 2222

9. 1212

10. 1998

Protecting Yourself from Brute-Forcers

Much like any PIN (e.g., debit cards), you just need to make the number hard to guess if you want to protect yourself. These tips should go a long way towards that:

1. Don’t choose any of the ten passcodes listed above.

2. Don’t use any important dates or any other numbers that can be linked back to you.

3. Steer away from passcodes that make shapes, like “1397” or “7139” (a square).

4. Instead of an easy 4-digit number, use the newer default 6-digit PIN.

5. Even better, use an alphanumeric code. Go to Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode, select “Change Passcode,” then enter your current PIN. Then choose “Passcode Options” and set an alphanumeric passcode.

The Siri Method

You can use Siri to bypass any code on the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, or 5S (if Touch ID is disabled), but only to a certain extent, and only if the user has allowed Siri access when the phone is locked.

There’s an even newer method that works on all iPhone models and iOS versions up to 10.3.3. EverythingApplePro has done a great job of outlining the hack here, but suffice it to say, Siri is a pretty big vulnerability when it comes to your iPhone’s lock screen.

Protecting Yourself from Siri’s Flaws

You can protect yourself from this by deactivating Siri while the phone is locked. Do this by going to Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode and disabling the “Siri” option in the Allow Access When Locked section.

The iTunes Method

Resetting your iPhone can bypass the passcode, but will delete everything on the phone. This can come in handy if you forget your passcode and have everything backed up on your iTunes. So, if you get a message like this when connecting the device to iTunes…

You’ll need to restore your iPhone back to factory settings:

Turn off your iPhone.
Press and hold the Home button, and while holding the Home button in, hurry up and connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cord.
Continuing holding the Home button until the “Connect to iTunes” screen pops up.
iTunes will give you the recovery mode alert.
Click “OK” and restore the device.
This will take off the passcode, but will delete everything on the phone. After that, just make sure to log in with your Apple ID and password, then everything that’s been backed up will be restored automatically.

Protecting Yourself from iTunes Restorers

It’s tough to protect yourself from a hard reset, especially if your phone is stolen. What you can do is to make sure that Find My iPhone is turned on. That way you cannot only track where the iPhone is, but also remotely delete all the information on it. On the bright side, your data is safe regardless, because if a thief uses this method, they won’t be able to log back in with your Apple ID unless they know the email address and password. This means that none of your personal files, such as contacts, messages, and photos, will be available to them.