Apple and Other Smartphone Makers Back Global Anti-Theft Measures

[00sjsl]

Voluntary my ass! I remember not too long ago reading or hearing how the UK and EU governments were requesting handset makers buck up their security because too many phones are getting stolen.
This is their response, they'll sell it as voluntary, but in reality they were most likely told to sort it out or else.

The politicians getting confused. Phones already had unique IMEI's so that stolen phones could be backlisted. Unfortunately the networks weren't, in general, maintaining black lists. The networks were seen as benefiting from phone theft.

That was back when phones were mainly used for making phone calls.

 

[the8thark]

The best solution for this type if crime is a short rope and a tall tree. I never really understood our reluctance to deal harshly with the lazy people in society. By the way such a punishment needs to apply to all criminal theft no matter what the age of the criminal.

Capital punishment is very wrong. No one has the right to take a life, no matter what the circumstances. And I will never live in a country that has capital punishment. Even though I plan to never be in that situation I just can't stand it happening where I live. I am just lucky where I live, it is illegal.

 

[Xenc]

Now I just wish Apple would remove airplane mode from control center when the phone is locked. A quick switch of that and no more find my iPhone Shame have to disable all of CC on lockscreen rather than just that toggle!

The iPhone can still be turned off...

 

[gnasher729]

But you could hack the firmware on the phone and prevent it from doing the check. Of course, this hasn't been done, but you don't necessarily need to hack into Apple's servers.

If you figure out how to do this...

A blocked iPhone doesn't do anything but show a screen where it waits for you to type in an Apple Id and password. Obviously, the right Apple Id and password. You can't just "hack the firmware".

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How will they prevent the downside of joe user's mobile device getting wiped and deactivated by an ex-employee/friend/spouse who has shoulder surfed their too-short password?

By using longer passwords and by giving anyone trying to look at your password a severe telling off.

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What more can Apple do? What will a "kill switch" stop that activation lock won't? As always, crack down on everyone else but the actual criminals. Wouldn't want to offend them...

I can tell you what a kill switch will do. When you leave your iPhone at a friends place, panic, use the kill switch and your friend returns your iPhone to you, Apple has one more sale because nobody can reactivate the phone, including you or Apple. The problem with leaving these things to politicians is that they are clueless dolts, and they need something that is strongly worded ("kill switch" sounds ten times more macho than "activation lock").

With Apple's activation lock, you type in your Apple Id and password, find that your phone has been wiped, and restore it either from iTunes if you had a local backup or from Apple's servers. A bit inconvenient if you have slow internet and lots of data, but no problem at all.

 

[H2SO4]

Will require a non removeable battery in the case of non iPhones, (or a non removeable separate internal power source). A theif will just take off the back and power down to disable tracking giving him the time to safely strip for parts?

 

[dollystereo]

These are good news for me too (I have an iPhone, and these features may be useful someday, I hope not)... BUT I think laptop Anti-Theft mesures are as important as phones.

My 13'' Mid-2012 MacBook Pro was stolen a few days ago... and iCloud (Find My Mac) has been useless so far. Somehow the thief managed to not get my MB locked or wiped as of today (it was stolen on April 11th).

The Location Services (GPS) should not depend on the state of the device, wether it is powered on or off, it should always be able to be tracked. Also, the Find My Mac feature should not be able to be turned off... if you do a clean OS install, and never connect the mac to internet, you just need to be careful to turn off Find My Mac before connecting it, and it will never get locked or found by iCloud.

There should be a way to make the device a brick, not only wipe it or lock it.

Many people are working on a way to violate all the Anti-Theft security implemented by Apple, and be sure someone will accomplish it soon, if they have not done it already.

This is completely true, find my mac is completely useless in OSX. Same thing happened to me, they just clean install and good to go. EFI password should be the default Mac OS password system.

 

[mw360]

Activation look is good, but recently someone near me was attacked and forced to enter his pin into the phone. That suggests the thief knew about Activation Lock and knew the way to disable it is to get into settings and turn off Find My iPhone. This type of crime might be more rare and risky for the attacker but it's a heck of a lot more dangerous for the victim. Confronted with not only losing your phone, but also all that private data, would make some people more likely to put up a fight, and probably lose.

IMO it shouldn't be possible to turn off Find My iPhone from the phone itself. Once its on, you should have to go to iCloud.com to turn it off again.

I also think they should really start to consider adding a panic code - an alternative pin that acts like the real thing, but safeguards private data.

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Will require a non removeable battery in the case of non iPhones, (or a non removeable separate internal power source). A theif will just take off the back and power down to disable tracking giving him the time to safely strip for parts?

There's always something a thief can do. If you make the phone impregnable, they could just take your shoes. The point is about making something which literally lights up in your hand with obvious value, and making it significantly less of a temptation to thieves. An iPhone screen and a set of volume buttons are much less valuable than an iPhone.

 

[attila]

So I can sell my iPhone and then screw over whom I sold it to?

You know this will happen.

But why would you? You won't get any reward. You won't even see the person pissed off.

 

[gnasher729]

Activation look is good, but recently someone near me was attacked and forced to enter his pin into the phone. That suggests the thief knew about Activation Lock and knew the way to disable it is to get into settings and turn off Find My iPhone. This type of crime might be more rare and risky for the attacker but it's a heck of a lot more dangerous for the victim.

This just changed the crime from simple theft to armed robbery. Wherever this happens, it makes the crime a lot more serious, makes the punishment when caught a lot more serious, and makes the police a lot more interested in catching the perpetrator. In other words, a rather stupid move of the criminal who risks multiple years of jail for a phone.

 

[lke]

Companies like Apple don't care to stop iphone theft.

Why companies like Apple don't stop theft phones from accesing itunes, and the app store?

How could Apple stop theft phones from accesing itunes and the app store? Very easily because when your iphone is stolen you could access thru icloud and select a special stolen icon that blocks access to itunes and the app store, also Apple could share with the original icloud account the IP of the stolen iphone.

By closing access to the app store and itunes all stolen iphones and ipads will be useless. Because every time it is more difficult to jailbreak a device this will be harder for people with stolen devices to use them. Also by closing access to itunes people with a stolen device will have always an older phone because they will never be able to update it to the latest version.

When you buy your new Apple device you setup a new icloud account, only the original icloud account could have access to unlock the itunes or app store.

Thousands of Apple employes and they could not help or solve theft of Apple devices? They don't care because this is a big business.

 

[bushido]

my whole family doesnt use iCloud and Location Services because they dont want to be tracked by "that internet" ... same people who have passcode disabled and i just roll my eyes

anyway, good luck with that in Spain the police couldnt care less especially if you are a tourist. twice already i had to run after a thief to get my iPhone back from a guy who had like 6 stolen iPhones in his bag asking me which one was mine. you could say those thieves are at least polite here lol

 

[Tech198]

oh well... better late than never i always say.


Your tracked by your IP anyway, it must be known..

Also, how much info do you think your ISP knows about you...

Credit card companies and all..... ya ok, that is not being tracked.

If what this saying in the article is Apple, Google, etc will take over this responsibility, again, i have to frown.... The user should be responsible for doing this stuff...

Before we all had smart phones, we have to "take care of ourselves." Now all of a sudden technology rises up with smart phones and we can all "rest easy" because someone else will "clean up the mess"..

ya right

I don't use Location services not because of tracking, i don't care,,, you really think Apple isn't tracking ou anyway....? At least your mobile carrier knows what calls you make...

 

[TallManNY]

Anyone else worried about some hacker figuring out how to do this remotely and throwing the kill switch on all our phones? Or just taking a nice long password list and seeing which ones work in some brute force method.

There really isn't a huge rash of iPhone thefts. Yes they exist and they get reported. But at least in New York, street crime is about steady. iPhone thefts go up year after year, but basically just in proportion with the number of iPhones in circulation. Grabbing and running off with something is a really dangerous bit of crime. You might get chased and caught, you certainly have been seen and can be identified to the police (and the police in New York care and will take a theft seriously), and all you've grabbed is a phone that you will sell for hundred bucks or so.

 

[dsburdette]

So I can sell my iPhone and then screw over whom I sold it to?

You know this will happen.

This.

While these measures are certainly a nice feature, I don't see how this deters theft at all. Steal a phone, sell it to some numb nut who doesn't know any better and you still make your money. Don't forget people were paying for iPads in gas station parking lots only to find out they were painted cardboard boxes. There are plenty of idiots to sell stolen phones to.

 

[Digital Skunk]

People still believe electronic devices are secure....laughable

Agreed! It's like folks are trying to use code and legislation to prevent crime. I am not holding my breath for that anytime soon.

Doesn't stop people breaking stolen phones for spares though..

Agreed as well, which will be the next likely step if it's not already being done so. Most of the time, thieves don't steal phone to use them for themselves.

A gimmick that most 5S owners use daily? I guess by definition it wouldn't be a gimmick then...

True, I wouldn't call the finger print reader a gimmick at all. Then again, I don't call any real useful feature a gimmick as long as it's useful to someone.

Now I just wish Apple would remove airplane mode from control center when the phone is locked. A quick switch of that and no more find my iPhone Shame have to disable all of CC on lockscreen rather than just that toggle!

NAW! It just got there. I'd rather not have to drill through page after page of apps, then swipe through page after page of system prefs just to turn off something that should be at the top.

It's not like it's difficult to turn a cell phone off after it's stolen.

Cant this already be done? My gf lost her iPhone so since I knew her login info I remotely wiped it and locked.

Am I missing something?

This way it's not just wiping and locking. It's turning your phone into a brick.

Will require a non removeable battery in the case of non iPhones, (or a non removeable separate internal power source). A theif will just take off the back and power down to disable tracking giving him the time to safely strip for parts?

It's not hard to turn a phone off and disable tracking. Having a built in battery or removable one is moot.

Also what phone has a removable internal power source?

 

[Sophia2014]

True. They can still sell them for parts. Not quite as lucrative as a fully functioning phone but parts are still a big market.

I even accepting this because selling the phone via online marketing cant be trust in parts of the phones.

 

[hansonjohn590]

It's remarkable to see how cheap "icloud locked" iphone's are on eBay. It doesn't seem to stop thieves, just puts a dent in their profits.

I like that they're collaborating to put fourth an effort though!

Well said. The intentions of this are good but it ultimately won't stop the problem. In fact, it may come to the point where thieves will demand passwords/disabling of the phone on the spot through coercion.

 

[phillipduran]

What it could also grant would be to give the government the power to silence the voice of groups like the occupy movement and all other groups who dare speak up against their dear masters.

They could flip a switch and turn off your connection to social media and prevent you from being heard, stop you from getting the word out. I would be very wary about giving centralized control like this to anyone. Don't let them stop the signal.

But of course, this being done for your own good, think about how it will stop crime.

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There really isn't a huge rash of iPhone thefts. Yes they exist and they get reported. But at least in New York, street crime is about steady.

If this is true (I don't doubt it is) then why are they pushing for it and why the strange reversal of the phone companies opinion to opt in and support this? Seems like there is more to this than fighting street crime.

Those phones, they are mobile, on scene reporting platforms. Not the thing big government want's running unchecked, hmm, we should gather in a 1st amendment zone sometime and discuss this further.

 

[BvizioN]

It's remarkable to see how cheap "icloud locked" iphone's are on eBay. It doesn't seem to stop thieves, just puts a dent in their profits.

Don't expect thieves to be that smart and be aware of activation lock! They just steal and give to third party for few $ who is then smart enough to find away and sell it for a bit more!

 

[CalWizrd]

What it could also grant would be to give the government the power to silence the voice of groups like the occupy movement and all other groups who dare speak up against their dear masters.

They could flip a switch and turn off your connection to social media and prevent you from being heard, stop you from getting the word out. I would be very wary about giving centralized control like this to anyone. Don't let them stop the signal.

But of course, this being done for your own good, think about how it will stop crime.

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If this is true (I don't doubt it is) then why are they pushing for it and why the strange reversal of the phone companies opinion to opt in and support this? Seems like there is more to this than fighting street crime.

Those phones, they are mobile, on scene reporting platforms. Not the thing big government want's running unchecked, hmm, we should gather in a 1st amendment zone sometime and discuss this further.

Look out. They're coming to get you.

 

[TallManNY]

What it could also grant would be to give the government the power to silence the voice of groups like the occupy movement and all other groups who dare speak up against their dear masters.

They could flip a switch and turn off your connection to social media and prevent you from being heard, stop you from getting the word out. I would be very wary about giving centralized control like this to anyone. Don't let them stop the signal.

But of course, this being done for your own good, think about how it will stop crime.

----------



If this is true (I don't doubt it is) then why are they pushing for it and why the strange reversal of the phone companies opinion to opt in and support this? Seems like there is more to this than fighting street crime.

Those phones, they are mobile, on scene reporting platforms. Not the thing big government want's running unchecked, hmm, we should gather in a 1st amendment zone sometime and discuss this further.

One reason that it seems like thefts of iPhone are up is because they are. Basically, if you look at iPhone thefts they increase year over year. There were very few in 2007, and they've kept going up since then. So that gets the headline. But the reality is that the phones are simply much much more common now than they were even three years ago. So theft has gone up.

It has always been a bit of a pain to steal and resell the phones. And the ID touch is going to make passwords much more common.

But no, I don't think this is a government conspiracy. Our government really can't do conspiracies very well. Too many leaks.

 

[phillipduran]

Look out. They're coming to get you.

Look at the examples around the world of governments trying to control internet access and social media.

Look at the revolutions and "springs" that have risen up and overthrown governments and have used cellphones and social media to get the word out and inspire uprisings against tyrannical governments.

Now we see controls being put in place here.

Do you think there isn't a case to be made that they are coming for you, or at the very least have a strong desire to be able to control and contain you and your voice? Just this past week we saw government agencies willing to put up 1st amendment zones.

 

[Dave.UK]

Google's "Anti-theft" measures will be easily disabled by side-loading an APK - as always. Wait and see - if they can't stop piracy, how are these blithering dunderheads going to "fix" security of this importance?

I trust Google for security, like a bicycle made of jelly

You mean like they did in 2010 for Android 1.5 and upwards?
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/28/google-rolls-out-androids-new-anti-piracy-mechanism/

Of course, if your talking about rooted devices, the same can be said for jailbroken iPhone devices.

 

[Marrakas]

Nothing would be more awesome than the day when tech finally beats thieves. Probably not gonna happen, but still, thieves are the scum of the earth.

 

[CalWizrd]

Look at the examples around the world of governments trying to control internet access and social media.

Look at the revolutions and "springs" that have risen up and overthrown governments and have used cellphones and social media to get the word out and inspire uprisings against tyrannical governments.

Now we see controls being put in place here.

Do you think there isn't a case to be made that they are coming for you, or at the very least have a strong desire to be able to control and contain you and your voice? Just this past week we saw government agencies willing to put up 1st amendment zones.

It all comes down to individual perspective and priorities. I'd bet I'm probably twice your age. Different crusades, different windmills to tilt at.