Your iPhone Gets Stolen. Then the Hacking Begins
Key takeaways
- The company says it has tracked “dozens” of groups selling unlocking tools, mostly with a focus on iPhones, and has linked more than 10,000 phishing websites to the activity.
- “Reselling is a hundred percent what they’re going for,” says Maël Le Touz, a staff threat researcher at Infoblox, who says people from all around the world appear to be buying access to the pay-per-use software.
- Over the last few years, the number of phones being stolen has risen—for example, with around 80,000 devices being taken in London in one year.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Emergency SOS icon displayed on a phone screen is seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on September 14, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/Nur Photo via Getty Images)Photograph: Nur Photo/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Every year, millions of phones are stolen. While thousands of i Phones are shipped to China and broken down for parts, criminals can make more money selling a device that has been unlocked and wiped. Now researchers have unpicked part of the underground web of cybercrime services that can help provide access to stolen iPhones.
Across the web and on Telegram, there’s a “thriving” ecosystem of software sellers helping power the market for stolen iPhones by providing “unlocking” tools and the technology to produce phishing messages to help get access to a phone, according to findings from researchers at cybersecurity firm Infoblox. The company says it has tracked “dozens” of groups selling unlocking tools, mostly with a focus on iPhones, and has linked more than 10,000 phishing websites to the activity. Traffic to these domains increased 350 percent last year, the researchers say.
“Reselling is a hundred percent what they’re going for,” says Maël Le Touz, a staff threat researcher at Infoblox, who says people from all around the world appear to be buying access to the pay-per-use software. The average cost is below $10. “Most of the people looking to unlock phones clearly don’t have thousands of phones in their hands—they’re not at that scale,” Le Touz says.