Apple and Google face calls to install 'kill switches' in mobile phones stolen by moped gangs to end resale market

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

Pressure is mounting on big tech companies to install remote 'kill switches' in mobile phones amid ongoing phone-theft epidemic.
Senior Conservative politicians have urged the Labour Government to 'force' Apple and Google to end the criminal phone trade once and for all by rendering all stolen phones useless.
Kill switches work by severing smartphones from the cloud once the devices have been reported to police as stolen.
James Conway, who oversees Scotland Yard's phone-theft investigations, believes this will slash their market value on the black market, massively disincentivizing criminals from snatching them.
This call to action comes after a Daily Mail investigation revealed that vulnerable youngsters are being groomed into stealing phones by county-lines gangs, which are then shipped abroad in bulk and sold around the world.
Last night Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Daily Mail: 'The Labour Government is presiding over a crime epidemic - with phone theft rife.
'Mobile phone companies should urgently implement 'Kill Switches' which prevent stolen phones from accessing the cloud globally.
'Google and Apple claim to have antitheft measures but these are clearly completely ineffective.
This call to action comes after a Daily Mail investigation revealed that vulnerable youngsters are being groomed into stealing phones by county-lines gangs, which are then shipped abroad in bulk and sold around the world.
'If companies like Apple continue to refuse to do this voluntarily then the Government must urgently legislate to force them, by amending the Crime and Policing bill.
'Implementing a 'Kill Switch' is vital and the Government should legislate to compel big tech companies to do this if they're not going to do it voluntarily.'
Meanwhile, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Alicia Kearns added: 'A remote kill switch would reclaim our streets and better protect us all from the plague of phone thieves in our cities.
'This is the sort of initiative phone companies should be introducing to better protect their customers and help tackle organised crime.'
Some 80,000 phones are stolen in London every year, with around 80 per cent of this bounty ending up abroad.
Across the entire United Kingdom, around 230 mobile phones are stolen every single day.
Speaking to the Daily Mail last week, Commander James Conway, who oversees Scotland Yard's phone-theft investigations, explained that a 'kill switch' would ensure that a 'the [stolen device] wouldn't operate as a smartphone any more and would have next to zero value in that market.'
In response to the growing phone-theft crisis several cyber security companies such as Nuke From Orbit have been established to make it easier for users to safeguard their accounts.
Nuke From Orbit allows users to block access to multiple services and accounts simultaneously after the user's phone has been stolen.
James O'Sullivan, CEO and Founder of Nuke From Orbit explained: 'As our lives become more reliant on mobile phones, the need to be able to disavow that device when stolen increases exponentially.'
A spokesperson for Google said: 'Google's top priority is the safety of its users, and we are proud to bring constantly evolving, industry-leading security technologies to Android.
'Our freely available anti-theft features help users to protect their devices before, during, and after a theft.
'Users in locations at risk of phone theft can simply switch them on and stay protected.'