If you’ve ever lost an iOS device or had it stolen, then you might be familiar with the Find My iPhone feature that lets you either remotely lock your device, locate it, or remotely wipe it. This is useful if you don’t want people to know what’s on your device and if you want to lock it to prevent people from reselling it.However it seems that the remote wiping feature could potentially be used for criminal purposes, as law enforcement officials have discovered when a woman, Juelle Grant, was accused of remotely wiping an iPhone X that was seized as part of evidence in a case. This is according to a report from the Daily Gazette where Grant was said to be the driver of a suspect involved in a drive-by shooting.
As a result of her allegedly wiping the iPhone X and destroying potential evidence, Grant has since been charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and one count of hindering prosecution. According to the court documents, “The defendant was aware of the intentions of the police department at the conclusion of the interview with her.”
The Gazette suggests that this could have been easily avoided had the phone been place inside of a Faraday bag that would have blocked wireless signals, in which it would have prevented Grant (or whoever) to remotely access the iPhone to wipe it clean.