How and when the UK Government will use technological solutions to combat the growing rate of phone theft? MPs have asked the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Chair, Dame Chi Onwurah has written to the Home Secretary, relating that in June, her committee took evidence from the Metropolitan Police, tech figures and representatives from mobile phone manufacturers Apple, Google and Samsung. The MPs on the committee welcomed the recent operation by the Met Police, Echosteep, whereby detectives uncovered an ‘international smuggling gang’ which the Met believes could have been responsible for exporting up to 40 per cent of all the phones stolen in London.
However, Dame Chi Onwurah asked why the tech firms ‘have not implemented robust technical measures, such as cloud-based blocking or IMEI-linked device locks. This would mean that handsets could not connect to cloud accounts in foreign countries if they were registered as stolen, something that only the cloud provider can do, rendering the phones far less valuable when shipped overseas’. She added that the firms answered questions about data security rather than devices, and insisted that the phones were broken down and sold for parts, ‘without any evidence to support this assertion’. She asked when the Home Secretary will hold the next phone theft summit, as held between police and the tech firms by the previous Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, in February (when a further meeting was proposed, for May).
Tech solutions
Dame Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne, said: “Apple has told us there is no silver bullet to stop phone theft, but there are clearly technological solutions that can help deter it. The committee has yet to hear any convincing reasons why this hasn’t been implemented. Tech companies argue that phone theft is primarily for parts, but there’s little evidence to support this. If this was the case, these technical measures wouldn’t be needed – but they clearly are.
“Given the exploding growth of phone theft, it’s clear existing deterrents from tech companies are not working. To protect the public’s property, well-being and privacy, the government must take a strong stance and hold the long-delayed follow up phone theft summit. Only through such meetings can co-operation between government, police and the tech companies be secured to ensure these technical measures are implemented.”
Background
In July, a report, Your Money or Your Life, by the think tank Policy Exchange called for the Government to legislate to require Apple and Google to prevent stolen devices being able to connect with cloud services, ‘as the Metropolitan Police has been requesting for over 18 months. This would enable mobile phones to be quickly rendered less useful and limit the criminal market for the devices’, wrote the former Met Police Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer. He noted that ‘organised criminality is a key driver for the current robbery and theft person crime epidemic in London. The Metropolitan Police state that 80 per cent of mobile phones stolen in London are Apple iPhones with a resale value of £300-400.’ About three-quarters of mobile phones stolen are then shipped abroad – with Algeria and China being the two most prevalent end-point locations, the report added.
