It seemed innocent enough, my wife and another number asked me to look at her latest post.

We were both traveling separately and she was not answering the phone. She is one of those people who post status and locations on Facebook. When I saw the group message to me and a number I did not recognize, I figured it was one of “her” friends.

So I took the bait, clicked the link and for the 20 minutes, ringtone were added, volume was uncontrollable and my screen had gray streaks of various sizes.

I called 1800APLCARE and the very nice woman kept trying to go through a script that I had no way to help.

“Sir, what is IMEI code”

“Mam, As I said at the beginning I no longer have control of the phone.

Restart and reboot strategies were thwarted.

I tried to call my wife to tell her not to look at the text message with the link, but it was too late.

While my phone still shows the passcode screen, It does not respond and as I sit here writing this. I have an alarm I cannot turn off. I also think its probably a bad idea to use my access code right now.

In a matter of moments we went from a smart phone do an annoying brick.

Given that Apple was unprepared for this, I think this is something new.

I would love to hear from others if they know what this is.

I am assuming Apple is going to be fielding a lot of these calls.

When it comes, to security in IoT I get very annoyed at people who see greater risk in IoT than in consumer. In my phone are a lot of personal data, that I do not want exploited. In my smart thermostat, there is not a lot there..

We will see where this takes us. Send me a note

My life is full of irony. Today is the day that NIST is talking about IoT security and privacy at IoT Evolution.