5 Essential iOS 7 Cydia Tweaks to Thwart iPhone Thieves

Smartphone thievery is one of the most common types of theft, mostly because it’s terribly easy to misplace your phone, and the person who finds it just might have larceny in their heart. However, if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can at least thwart iPhone thieves with these clever iOS 7 Cydia tweaks.

Of course, there’s no way to literally thwart an iPhone thieve, as they’ll steal a phone no matter what. However, once they have your phone, they’ll probably have seconds thoughts once they discover that you have the device locked down and easily trackable.

These iOS 7 Cydia tweaks can work together to make your jailbroken iPhone one of the most secure iPhones on the block, disabling thieves from turning off GPS or even shutting down the device entirely, as well as taking a picture of the thief when a passcode reaches too many wrong guesses. Plus, you can set up commands that will allow you to easily locate your lost iPhone if it’s in the vicinity.

Activator

Activator itself isn’t geared specifically toward those who want to secure their iPhones from potential thieves, but it can be used in such manner if you’d like, since Activator can do a lot of neat stuff. For instance, one Reddit user has come up with actions for Activator that allow you to text your misplaced iPhone from another device with different commands for different situations.

For example, you can set up Activator to have your iPhone turn on the ringer even if the thief puts it on silent by texting your iPhone the command RINGERON. You can mix these kinds of commands from Activator with other jailbreak tweaks to add even more functionality.

That Reddit user even described a situation where these commands came in handy after he accidentally dropped his phone in a movie theather:

“This is when I remembered that I set up an activator setting to turn my phone volume on. By sending a text message from my friend’s phone saying “RINGERACTIVATEON” I was able to faintly hear my phone go off around the row behind me. I began to become suspicious of the two people sitting behind us. I then called my phone and it began to ring and suddenly halted as if the call was ignored. I immediately knew it was one of the people behind me.”

Long story short, he got his phone back and the thief was escorted out of the movie theater.

BioLockdown

By using the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s, you can prevent certain apps from opening or certain actions from being done by requiring a fingerprint scan first. This is where BioLockdown comes in handy.

Previously, we mentioned a jailbreak tweak called BioProtect, which allows you to fingerprint-protect certain apps, so that you can only access them by scanning your finger using the Touch ID home button, but BioLockdown is cheaper and offers more features and settings to play around with than BioProtect.

Personally, I only use BioLockdown to prevent someone from shutting off my iPhone, because once the device is off, it’s no longer traceable and Find My iPhone becomes useless at that point. You can also set it up so that a fingerprint scan is required in order to turn off connections like WiFi, LTE and GPS, which are vital in order to track down a lost or stolen iPhone.

iCaughtU

iCaughtU is pretty much like Find My iPhone on steroids. Find My iPhone allows you to easily locate a lost or stolen iOS device, but iCaughtU takes things to a new level.

The tweak allows owners to set up a handful of different security measurements on their iPhone, like when a thief enters in the wrong passcode, the front-facing camera takes a photo of the perpetrator and emails it to the owner, along with the location of the phone and a map. You also can’t turn off the device when it’s locked, preventing thieves from erasing their tracks.

There’s also a Pro version that allows owners to perform remote actions over iMessage and forward any text messages or calls to another number, that way the thief doesn’t see any incoming activities on your iPhone. iCaughtU does require a Gmail address to send the info to, but most people have a Gmail account nowadays. If not, it’s really easy to sign up for a Gmail account, even if it’s just a burner to use for the jailbreak tweak alone.

CleverPin

CleverPin isn’t necessarily a jailbreak tweak aimed at thwarting iPhone thieves, but it’s a nice tweak to have if you want to have a passcode lock enabled, but without the hassle of entering it in all the time. A good passcode on your iPhone is crucial for keeping it secure when it ever becomes lost or stolen. However, it can be a nuisance at times, especially when you’re at home when the chances of your device getting lost or stolen are very slim.

CleverPin allows you to have the passcode lock enabled only when you’re out of the house. It does this by adding your home’s WiFi network to its list of approved locations. You can even add your parents’ house or a friend’s house to the list. If the tweak detects that you’re on an approved WiFi network, it disables the passcode lock, but once you leave WiFi, it will enable passcode lock.

There are also settings you can change as far as when passcode lock is enabled or disabled, like when you’re playing music or when your iPhone is plugged in.

AndroidLock XT

As with CleverPin, AndroidLock XT isn’t a jailbreak tweak aimed at thwarting iPhone thieves, but it’s a nice replacement to the iPhone’s traditional passcode lock that makes it easier and quicker to unlock your iPhone.

One thing that we’re big fans of on Android is the pattern lock feature, where you can simply draw a pattern in order to unlock your Android device. iOS doesn’t have this by default, but jailbroken users can download and install AndroidLock XT from Cydia to get the pattern unlock feature.

The tweak gives you the same 3×3 layout as Android, and you can setup your own pattern to unlock your iPhone or iPad. You can even get customizable themes to fit your style, and there are even options to have the pattern unlock disabled if you’re on WiFi or connected to a Bluetooth device. Plus, the tweak works with iCaughtU, so you can integrate AndroidLock XT in with your various security measures.