Apple has a new lock-down plan to counter iPhone-snatching crime
Smartphones are high-value street attack targets and law enforcement is applying constant pressure on manufacturers to enhance anti-theft protection on these devices.
Apple and Google are listening, which is why both platforms are at different stages of developing a new AI-augmented protection which locks your device if it thinks it has been snatched from your hand.
For your protection
Apple already has useful protective features like Stolen Device Protection and Find My to help keep your data safe if you lose your iPhone. The new feature (a little like Android’s Theft Detection Lock) means that if the device identifies that it has been snatched it will automatically lock itself.
The reason this matters is that there has been a spate of highly mobile device thefts in which assailants grab phones out of someone’s hands if they see them using the device. The attacker then quickly disables device protections before the smartphone locks up again. It’s an insidious attack that has caused people genuine problems and law enforcement is very concerned about it. As are tens of thousands of people who have been victims of this crime.
Making crime (not) pay
Apple’s approach will help prevent that crime by making it profitless. There’s a lot less money to be made from selling a locked iPhone.
A report claims Apple will also leverage distance data provided by a paired Apple Watch to help make the protection more accurate. That means if your device senses it may have been grabbed and then sees your Apple Watch moving further and further away at speed as if someone is running away with your device, it will lock the device. The feature also sees the device prevent access to settings that Stolen Device Protection usually restricts.
This sounds like a positive thing to me and I’m sure law enforcement will be pleased. The latest generation of teenage muggers on scooters and low grade junkies seeking a few dollars more will be less so.
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