Our Blog, Stolen

Even away from home…

…are crime figures soaring. Just half an hour after I’d written about the rising figures in London, Paul handed me a tear-out of a page of the New York Times which has an article about smartphone theft in Paris. It seems as though the figures are equally alarming in our neighbouring countries as they are in our own.

Part of the article states that ‘lawmakers are urging a law requiring telephone operators to create a system to permanently block the use of a phone after a theft, and not just the number itself’. If you’re reading this far you’ll know that such software exists already, in the form of Mobile Superhero. The best thing about it is, you don’t have to rely on your network operator. You can even take care of the locking process yourself and it’s totally international.

Read the full article from the New York Times below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/world/europe/09paris.html

Take care while you’re out and about

An article by the Daily Mail today shows how the recent popularity of smartphones have impacted on crime figures. In London, 2010 had an 8.3 percent rise on 2009 and between December 2009 and November 2010, around 13,400 phones were snatched estimated to cost £2.5 million. Those figures set the average value of phones being stolen at around £186 each. They aren’t exactly cheap phones that you wouldn’t be too bothered about having pinched.

This particular article from the Daily Mail seems to concentrate on iPhones, Blackberrys and iPads but it’s also new (and expensive) Android phones and Windows Mobile 7 phones that will now be targeted by the same thiefs as well.

The worst thing is, you can’t guarantee it won’t happen to you. I myself over Christmas time even thought I had become a victim of pick-pocketing after a day spent in town (luckily my phone turned up elsewhere). There are though, several things you can do to perhaps decrease the possibility of this type of crime happening to you. Here’s some of my personal ideas:

• Keep your phone in a tight pocket, tight jeans help as a pick-pocketer would never be able to reach your phone without you noticing.
• Have your phone set to vibrate. If you recieve a phonecall or text message and it’s noticably audible, you may be attracting unwanted attention to yourself.
• Use a handsfree kit. If you’ve got your phone in your hand rather than in your pocket, again you’re much more likely to bring attention to yourself.
• Attach a wrist string to your phone. Many thiefs are oppurtunists and will try to snatch your phone while riding past on a bicycle or running not wanting to stick around at all.
• Install security software. Our own software, Mobile Superhero only costs €19.99 per year and can lock, locate and even instigate a siren on your phone.

You can read the full article by the Daily Mail by following the link below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345904/iPhone-muggers-cash-craze-street-thefts-smartphones-rise.html

Rapper Tracks His Stolen iPad

I saw a news article today that told how Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.Am tracked his iPad, after it had been stolen from his car along with a number of other items.

Although it doesn’t link directly to our services (Superhero for the iPhone will be released soon, and maybe even the iPad after that) it shows the importance of being able to do this with your devices, whether it’s your mobile, smartphone or laptop that goes missing.

Not only did he get back his iPad, but the police also recovered some of the items worth over £6000.

Luckily this sort of technology isn’t limited to people with celebrities wallets. With our Superhero software installed on your mobile, smartphone or laptop you’d be able to do exactly the same and possibly even help your local police catch the thief red handed. It’s even more important to equip your device with these capabilities if you can’t afford to keep replacing your devices when they go missing.

You can read the full news article here.

New Laptop security service

Sheffield based IT company have just launched a product Backstopp which locates laptops, takes a picture of the thief and destroys the data on the laptop.

At £10 per month it is very expensive but seems to be an interesting product. It uses GSM, RFID and internet to help activate the software when reported stolen. Best of luck with the launch , the more awareness of the need to protect laptops etc the better. It is a difficult to see how good it is as there is no demo download on the site but looking forward to checking it out in the future.

Paul

Tips on keeping data safe on laptops

Matthew Stibbe over at Bad Language has some good tips on keeping your laptop data safe and sound.

The top tips:

- Back it up

- Use strong passwords

- Encrypt your harddrive

- Be careful what you put on your laptop

- Use a bag that doesnt look like a laptop bag

- Use security chains

- Dont post your laptop – to all you lucky macbook air owners.

- Last bit not least tag it with a yougetitback tag ( shameless plug)

New Phone with fingerprint sensor

Driven by concern over data security Fujitsu have launched phones with a fingerprint sensor.

excerpt

“The main purpose of the sensor is to protect personal and corporate information on mobile devices if they are lost or stolen and to secure transactions related to mobile commerce and online banking, where users can log in to mobile banking sites without Personal Identification Numbers or passwords.”

5 most stolen gadgets

The 5 most stolen gadgets as reported by switched.com are laptops, cellphones, GPS units, Car stereos and iPods.  No great suprise that laptops are top of the heap as they are small and have a good resale value on the black market. We would add to the tips below that every mobile items needs to be tagged. Lots of stolen items get recovered by police and lay gathering dust in police departments as they have no way of tracking the owner down.

1. Laptops - tips include locks, passwords, insurance and encryption. 
2. Cell Phones – use a password, call your cell company to deactivate it, call the police
3. GPS Devices - remove the device and its mount when you park, use a friction mount (so no ring is left visible), also use a password, close car windows, and install a car alarm
4. Car Stereos – remove faceplate, use a security code, use a car alarm, log serial number
5. iPods - use other headphones, conceal the player, be careful where you take it (subways, schools)

Iphone thefts

I read an interesting article on iPhone theft here. Iphone thefts are reported to be more prevalent than Ipod thefts and the biggest driver for theft is not the phone itself but your identity according to law enforcement.

Lots of concern on how to protect the iPhone – no solid product out there that I have come across. As more and more activity goes mobile e.g. mobile banking id theft will drive lots of theft of high end phone. I will be slow to move my banking on to my phone until this is sorted. My online banking seems pretty secure .. the banks and carriers need to give lots of peace of mind.
There is a nice site to register your iPhone pre loss / theft

These guys say 3 million lost /stolen cellphone this year in the US.