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New FCC, carrier database of stolen cellphones aims to reduce iPhone theft

Wireless carriers in the U.S. are cooperating with the Federal Communications Commission to assemble a joint database of stolen mobile phones in hopes of curbing theft of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone.

The four largest carriers in the U.S. have all agreed to participate in the new database, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Verizon and Sprint already block stolen phones from being reactivated, while AT&T and T-Mobile do not.

Wireless operators will maintain the database and prevent phones listed as stolen from activating voice or data service. The efforts are intended to serve as a deterrent to potential criminals by reducing the resale value of stolen devices. iPads and other tablets with cellular networking technology will also be added to the database.

"We wanted to find a way to reduce the value of stolen smartphones," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

The specifics of the database are still under discussion, but a "broad outline" has been agreed upon, the Journal noted. The unique serial numbers of devices would be used to keep track of stolen phones. Wireless operators have also agreed to promote the use of device passcodes to reduce theft.

Carriers plan to create their own databases in the next six months and integrate them over the course of 12 months. A person familiar with the initiative told the publication that regional carriers will likely join the database within the next two years.

With high-value smartphones becoming commonplace among conusmers, law-enforcement officials have become increasingly vocal about cellphone theft in recent years. Cellphone-related robberies in Washington D.C. have increased 54 percent since 2007, the year the original iPhone was released. An internal New York Police Department document reportedly indicated that 81 percent of the 26,000 electronics theft incidents that took place during the first 10 months of 2011 involved mobile phones.

According to the report, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which represents 70 police chiefs from large U.S. and Canadian cities, called on the FCC to put pressure on carriers to disable stolen phones.

Police have even resorted to sting operations to crack down on vendors purchasing stolen devices. An NYPD sting last December that offered "stolen" Apple devices to local merchants netted 141 arrests.

Database strategies in the U.K. and Australia appear to have reduced theft in those countries. The number of cellphone-related crimes in London stood at 8,000 per month last fiscal year, down from 10,000 per month in 2004, even as the number of handsets almost doubled over the period.

For its part, Apple has also worked to build theft deterrents into its devices. In 2009, the company launched a Find My iPhone service that helps users track, lock and wipe devices that have been lost or stolen. Also in 2009, a patent application surfaced for an "acceleration-based theft detection system" that would sound an alarm if an accelerometer picked up fast movement of the device that was likely to be a theft.



29 Comments

jbfromoz 16 Years · 91 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Wireless carriers in the U.S. are cooperating with the Federal Communications Commission to assemble a joint database of stolen mobile phones in hopes of curbing theft of smartphones such as Apple's iPhone.

it's only taken what 20 years for this, I am constantly dumbfounded by how an IMEI or other serial has not previously been able to "lock" a stolen device.

jahonen 17 Years · 364 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by JBFromOZ

it's only taken what 20 years for this, I am constantly dumbfounded by how an IMEI or other serial has not previously been able to "lock" a stolen device.

Actually they has. It's been in the GSM specification and 3G specifications from day 1.

When the phone registers to the network, the network can query the IMEI and check against a "Blacklist" of denied terminals and block any terminal found on the blacklist.
There's even a possibility for a greylist of phones, which get "special" treatment.

Some countries have had this implemented before (during GSM-era) and even marketed it as a feature, but it is not very effective since the phones can be used on other networks not participating in the scheme or shipped abroad to be sold there.

It really needs co-operation on a global scale to be effective. I don't believe it will be very global since many countries decouple the handset from the subscription. In these locations, the operator has very little incentive to block a stolen phone as they would also block a legitimate subscriber.

Regs, Jarkko

andyapple 18 Years · 143 comments

It's going to take them two more years to implement this?! Sheesh.

Question: If your iDevice gets lost or stolen and you remotely wipe and lock it, can you still track it?

misa 14 Years · 827 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by jahonen

It really needs co-operation on a global scale to be effective. I don't believe it will be very global since many countries decouple the handset from the subscription. In these locations, the operator has very little incentive to block a stolen phone as they would also block a legitimate subscriber.

Steal an AT&T phone, put it on craigslist for the town on the other side of the border. Steal a Verizon phone, you are hosed. More international cooperation is required so one doesn't just steal a phone and then sell it to ROC or Africa.

What really needs to happen is that there needs to be a hidden security APN that is always enabled, like the e911 requirement. If the device has no internet connectivity but there is a wireless signal, it should try to report it's location by open WiFi or this hidden APN if the the data has been disabled. This would then require people targeting iPhones/iPads to have bags to block wireless. Your average opportunistic thief isn't going to be this person.

Apple could allow the owner to be a little more dickish to potential thieves and make it unable to be turned off without entering the PIN, to play sounds via the system speaker (not headphones) at maximum volume or even have SIRI yell out "HELP HELP HELP!", but I think this may eventually turn into the Car alarm problem where everyone ignores it.

But at any rate, this could be made easier. Each carrier can maintain blacklists of devices for their own networks, but when devices are activated on a new network, the IMEI needs to be checked against all carriers blacklists. This can be done... it's been done with Local Number Portability (otherwise people would be stealing phone numbers that are highly desirable.)

saltwater 15 Years · 50 comments

What about a little C4 in each phone!

Do you understand the person who "bought" the phone perhaps wasn't the criminal, imagine a store selling stollen phones? Before saying to blow up the person ears, please investigate in each case!

For example, some old phones that you give to the store for a discount are sold by the telephone company to other markets in the world, so things are not that simple, I guess you can't prohibit a foreigner to get into your country with his/her phone.

And so it goes, and what about privacy, each company can't watch where you are,...!?