Apple's New Stolen Device Protection Enhances iPhone Security

The feature in iOS 17.3 uses location and biometrics to protect against thieves who know the user's passcode.

Overview

Apple introduces Stolen Device Protection, a new security feature in iOS 17.3, to protect users from thieves who know their passcode.
The feature uses the iPhone's location to determine if the user is in a familiar place like home or work. If not, it requires Face ID or Touch ID in addition to the passcode for sensitive actions.
Stolen Device Protection also implements an hour-long delay before sensitive actions can be performed, requiring a reconfirmation with another biometric scan.
The feature aims to prevent thieves from changing the user's Apple ID password, turning off Find My, enabling a recovery key, accessing passwords in Keychain, and deleting iCloud data.
To enable Stolen Device Protection, users need to have an iPhone running iOS 17.3 or later and have Face ID or Touch ID enabled on their device.