Why it seems that it is impossible to stop the phone thieves? star-news.press/wp

Even if you haven’t stole your smartphone, you can know someone with him. In London, 80,000 phones were stolen Last year alone. As the victims of the theft of the phone teaches, while the loss of the price tool can be the sting, the global administrative logo in replacing a device that runs your entire life can be worse in some respects. So why can we not stop the thieves of the phone – is there a better way to protect your personal data?

The answer is partially due to the many ways that criminals benefit from stolen phones, but it is also related to technology companies that give the ability to use on security and international governments that fail to reach a global solution. In short, it is complicated.

Some victims put the blame with the police for their failure to pick up the phone thieves. When Nav Dugmore traveled from Wolverhampton, the United Kingdom, to London for the first time, IPhone kidnapped her seconds after the departure of Train Train station, a main transportation center. “He was shocked, if you were honest,” she says. “There should be something else in place to prevent them from using your phone, and I think the police need to do more.”

The Capital Police in London told her that many other thefts had occurred in the same place in the previous hour and admitted that there was no opportunity to recover. Dugmore had the preparation of the security security security, but the device was opened when it was seized and the thief soon spent 300 pounds in different stores throughout London. She says the biggest blow is to lose pictures of her three children who grow up, which were not supported.

When a phone like Dugmore’s is stolen, it enters the transport belt from the crime, with potential multiple destinations. The simplest way is the thief simply selling the phone, and it is often rested in another country. Phones for spare parts can also be sold to non -conscience repair shops. Daniel Green, London Police Inspector, says that the kidnappers on the phone have links to the gangs that issue devices, and are essentially blowing them in the same way as drug smuggling.

Then there are more relevant fraud operations, such as removing the SIM card that determines the phone on the network and put it in another phone. This allows criminals to read text messages for the victim and can access them to email and websites that use bilateral factors. It is possible to fight this by setting up your SIM personal identification number, but this should be done before the phone is stolen.

James Osoulivan, who runs an application called Nuke designed to help people in the wake of his theft, says the most valuable phone for the number that is targeting is one without safety protection, but even putting a pin on your phone will not necessarily protect you. Thieves may simply look at your shoulder to see your pin, or use more revolt. For example, stimulating the SOS emergency feature for iPhone and then canceling it will temporarily disable access by face or fingerprint recognition, which makes you insert a pin the next time you open. Smart thief can display a picture of you, withdraw this trick in a hidden way, then snooze when entering your personal identification number after returning the phone.

With an unbelievable access, criminal options become more sophisticated. Thieves can steal money from online banking applications or cryptocurrencies, then send a message to the victim’s friends and family to deceive them to send emergency funds. They can even publish thorny links on social media accounts to photograph others in providing private entry records or data.

So what can be done? The UK government realizes at least a problem. Firing Campaign late last year, I promised to press smart phone manufacturers to permanently disable the stolen phone. He also pledged to conduct an investigation to learn more about people who steal phones, where the devices end and how to stop the problem.

In theory, technology is already found to disable stolen phones. Each IMEI icon device carries unique and can be blocked and can be banned stolen from mobile phone networks, which already occurs on the basis of each country in places that include the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. But there is still a banned phone in this way that can access the Internet through Wi-Fi Etisalat. Met police have always urged technology companies to build on this and also Prevent access to cloud services from those phones, Such as backups of data and storing images, which would reduce their functions and make them less attractive to the sauce. To date, Apple and Google have refused to do so.

This will not even help if these restrictions continue to work on the basis of each country, as is the case with IMEI blocks now, as criminals can simply send phones to a country that has not been banned. Green says he wants to see manufacturers creates a permanent killing key for devices, to completely remove the incentive for criminals to take phones. “I don’t know if this is not a problem for them,” he says. “More pressure needs to be placed. We are trying to pick up the pieces at our end, which is very difficult.”

Jordan Heer, a former police chief digital medicine expert who is now working for the S-RM, says phones are already equipped with security features that must even keep the most specific fraudsters. For example, lock some phones automatically if they discover sudden rugged movement, such as extracted by the thief.

The problem is that many of these options are stopped by default – which is done by suspects to make life simple and smooth as possible for users. He says: “In fact, adherence to these features does not help the public consumer because they do not necessarily know that they are there.” “While the subscription cancellation scheme, and making it hypothetical, get better information when preparing your phone for the first time about” this setting, this is what you do, that is why you should not turn it on, “for example, puts measures in place before the phone is stolen.”

Meanwhile, other safety features that seem promising, such as the ability to track the current location of your phone from the web browser, simply fail to make a change in the real world. If the phone is tracked to a large bloc of apartments, there are few police officers who can dispense with more information Because it is not possible to obtain a large -scale inspection note.

This was definitely the Dugmore experience with the stolen iPhone. “The last site was about 10 miles from the place where my phone was dated,” she says. The police said, “There is no chance to restore this phone.” When asked about the accident, I told the capital police New world: “Unfortunately, the investigation can not be made more due to the CCTV deficiency in the area. We are aware of the victim’s frustration.”

Most of the main smartphone sellers did not respond to the suspension request New worldWith Samsung, Xiaomi and Google failure to respond. Apple responded, however.

“We have worked on this problem from the point of view of devices and programs and customer support for more than the past decade,” says Apple spokesman. “We have made and continue to make significant investments to create leading tools and features in the industry that puts control in the hands of our users in the event of theft.” The spokesperson refused to explain the reason why some safety options were not operated by default.

Ultimately, the only way to prevent the stealing of a smartphone – unlike caution whenever you use your device in public places – is for manufacturers to make it not worth criminals. They have control of devices and programs, and they can bring features that cannot be fully falling down to the bottom of the phone and its applications and spare parts from abuse or reselling them. But O’sllivan says it does not seem a priority. “If you are brutally honest, it may not be the biggest thing, because the stolen phones are reasonable good works for people who sell new phones.”

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