Yesterday’s Apple iOS 10.2.1 does not add any fancy new features to your phone, but it does patch over a dozen major vulnerabilities in the OS. Some of these vulnerabilities will allow hackers full access to your iOS device.
Some of these vulnerabilities, listed here, can allow an application to “execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges”. This is geek-speak for “your phone can be comprehensively hacked”.
As a Malwarebytes security analyst points out to Wired, these vulnerabilities will let hackers “add files, delete files or execute any actions.” Many of these vulnerabilities affect WebKit as well, which is the default rendering engine used by iOS. This means that any application that uses WebKit on iOS (which is a lot) is vulnerable.
Wired does add that most of these vulnerabilities are too obscure and hard to find for the regular hacker.
It’s not just iOS devices that are vulnerable, however; Apple has released updates for macOS, tvOS and watchOS as well. All of these updates include various security patches. The macOS update also includes a patch for the Safari browser caching bug that lost the MacBook Pro its first ‘recommended’ badge from Consumer Reports.
Obviously, you’d better make sure that all your Apple devices are updated if you want  to stay completely safe and secure.