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Across the world the theft of smartphones has been a rising crime category while crime overall is trending down. I seem to recall that in New York City that it's the fastest growing crime. Law enforcement across the country and consumers have been begging for legislation requiring cell phone service providers to implement a kill switch, so if your phone is stolen, you can easily have it locked or wiped.
Both Android and iPhones have such capability, I'm not sure about the new generation of Windows smartphones. But you have to be aware of this capability and configure your phone before it's stolen for this to be effective, for iPhones and iPads you install a program called Find My Phone and link it to a free iCloud account: when your device is lost or stolen, you sign on to iCloud and you can lock the device, reformat it immediately, make it beep, display a message that says 'Hey! Return the phone from whence you got it!' or whatever. I don't know how you do this under Android, but I know the capability is there and the process is similar.
Additionally, iOS devices can be configured to wipe themselves after ten failed attempts to get past the security logon, I'm sure Android has a similar feature. So if you think you're going to be arrested, turn off your device and make it that much harder for your phone to be probed. Most smartphones these days are already encrypted but law enforcement forensic tools can typically get part that.
Law enforcement wants this, because it will reduce violent crime: a lot of people get hurt before surrendering their $400 phone. The Federal Department of Justice wants to put a kibosh on this. They say that there's too much of a risk that criminals could have co-conspirators wipe their phone before, and apparently this has happened where a drug gang actually had an IT department who knew to wipe devices if a dealer was arrested.
There's an easy way for law enforcement to preserve evidence. First, turn off the device. Next, in the case of a non-iOS device, remove the battery. Third, put the device in a Faraday bag. This blocks all signals from getting in or out of the device, thus preserving it for when the police get around to getting as search warrant. If the judge decides not to award the warrant or you're released, no harm no fowl. The chickens appreciate the no harm part.
So the Feds want to prevent a technology that would reduce violent crime by making the value of the stolen object pretty much nil, because it would represent a slight increase in the difficulty of doing their job. I wish I had that power, the next time that I get a tech support job I can make it illegal to hire idiots to make my job easier.
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/smartphone-kill-switch/
Both Android and iPhones have such capability, I'm not sure about the new generation of Windows smartphones. But you have to be aware of this capability and configure your phone before it's stolen for this to be effective, for iPhones and iPads you install a program called Find My Phone and link it to a free iCloud account: when your device is lost or stolen, you sign on to iCloud and you can lock the device, reformat it immediately, make it beep, display a message that says 'Hey! Return the phone from whence you got it!' or whatever. I don't know how you do this under Android, but I know the capability is there and the process is similar.
Additionally, iOS devices can be configured to wipe themselves after ten failed attempts to get past the security logon, I'm sure Android has a similar feature. So if you think you're going to be arrested, turn off your device and make it that much harder for your phone to be probed. Most smartphones these days are already encrypted but law enforcement forensic tools can typically get part that.
Law enforcement wants this, because it will reduce violent crime: a lot of people get hurt before surrendering their $400 phone. The Federal Department of Justice wants to put a kibosh on this. They say that there's too much of a risk that criminals could have co-conspirators wipe their phone before, and apparently this has happened where a drug gang actually had an IT department who knew to wipe devices if a dealer was arrested.
There's an easy way for law enforcement to preserve evidence. First, turn off the device. Next, in the case of a non-iOS device, remove the battery. Third, put the device in a Faraday bag. This blocks all signals from getting in or out of the device, thus preserving it for when the police get around to getting as search warrant. If the judge decides not to award the warrant or you're released, no harm no fowl. The chickens appreciate the no harm part.
So the Feds want to prevent a technology that would reduce violent crime by making the value of the stolen object pretty much nil, because it would represent a slight increase in the difficulty of doing their job. I wish I had that power, the next time that I get a tech support job I can make it illegal to hire idiots to make my job easier.
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/smartphone-kill-switch/
