Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets your iPhone

Does your mobile device policy cover bear attack? Kris Rowley would tell you it should. Over the summer, the CISO for the state of Vermont was hiking through the woods when she was approached by a young bear, walking out from behind an evergreen. She backed away slowly, only to be followed by the bear. Her mental risk assessment (play dead, run away) was kicking in, the bear closed to within 30 feet, and she opted to throw the one thing she had on her person at the bear, her iPhone.


“Bears are giant, marauding, godless killing machines.”
– Dr. Stephen Colbert


The bear stopped to look at and sniff the iPhone, and Rowley made her escape.

A couple of days later, carrying a baseball bat Rowley returned to the scene of the crime. The iPhone was still there.

True to form, the genius’s of the genius bar at the Apple store took one look at the mangled iPhone, complete with teeth and claw marks, and decided they did not believe Rowley when she said “A bear ate my iPhone”. Apple gave her two options, buy a new phone or forfeit her contract, and thus Rowley purchased a new phone at full price. Apparently using an iPhone as a bear repellent is not covered under warranty.

“…better the phone than me.” – Rowley

On the positive side, the State of Vermont appears to have avoided a data breach, as there is no evidence that the bear accessed the data on the iPhone.