'Rick's Tricks' are a treat:finding an iPhone when it's misplaced

You can use your own phone’s tethering feature to spin up a WiFi network with the same name and password as a home network and wander around to see if anything connects. Eventually, a connection can be made and the missing phone will probably be discovered.

This is a super cool way to find a missing phone and could be useful for anyone going through a similar situation, it is a reminder about the dangers of WiFi. Specifically, Isaía executed an “evil twin” attack where they set up a WiFi network to spoof another one and collect some sort of information. Though this is not likely to happen in the outback of Argentina, take a moment to think about all the public WiFi connections you have used that do not have a password. From coffee shops to airlines and everything in between, it would not take much to spoof that WiFi network and pass all network traffic through an attacker-controlled server in an effort to steal sensitive data or information.

Of course, this is less of a concern if you are on encrypted websites indicated by HTTPS versus HTTP, and even more so if you use a VPN on any public WiFi network to double down on personal security. However, it might be worthwhile simply turning off auto-connecting WiFi even though it would break this method of finding a missing device.

In any event, spooling up a WiFi network is a genius way to find your own devices, provided you understand the risks. It is this kind of thinking that not only provides clever solutions to problems but also enhances security.