Apple is rolling out a new security setting for iPhones following Wall Street Journal reporting about a vulnerability that allowed thieves to break into victims’ devices and upend their lives.

The Journal reported on a nationwide spate of thefts where criminals used iPhone owners’ passcodes to change their Apple accounts, access saved passwords, steal money and lock them out of their iCloud-stored photos and videos. Thieves in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis and other cities watch iPhone owners tap in their passcodes before stealing the targets’ devices.