Guarding Against Mobile Theft

By Author: Bonny Kominek
Total Articles: 50
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Brick-like handsets with green screens and Snake as the only highlight was all we knew in regards to mobile phones 10 years ago. But now, the technology that powers today''s mobile phones is moving faster than a teenager writing a text message using predictive text.

Now, a decade later we can organise our lives from the palms of our hands; call, text, email, surf the internet, take pictures, listen to music and with the introduction of apps, the world is rapidly becoming your mobile phone''s oyster. Mobile phone advancement doesn''t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down either.

''Intelligent technology'' will be the talk of the town as mobile phone producers, network providers and operating systems developers show off their latest contributions at this year''s Mobile World Congress.

Taking the lead this year are the developers as software including apps are now what defines the differences between the big three, Microsoft, Apple and Google and is what attracts the gadget-hungry consumers.

But growing in correlation with mobile phone use is mobile phone theft. The Government has now called on ...
... the mobile phone industry to step in, in an attempt to protect users from having their handsets stolen and misused.

In the past 12 months, approximately 2% of British mobile phone owners have had their handsets stolen. If measuring thefts from teenagers, the figure jumps to 6%. To try and tackle this problem, the Government unveiled a handful of new handset designs to increase the security of mobile phones.

One of these new handsets locks itself if it''s separated from its owner. Another uses encryption data to match a specific sim card to a specific handset and the third uses a kind of ID to authenticate the user with the handset.

Criminals are finding life easier thanks to mobile and internet technology. Personal data is misused and fraud and identity theft are increasing. Mobile technology, in particular the use of Blue Tooth, means mobile users are susceptible to all kinds of hackers and criminals.

It is annoying enough to have you phone stolen because of the inconvenience, but there is also the worry that it could be misused. The best case scenario is that it is sold on to make money, but sometimes the data stored in it can be used fraudulently.

This year''s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is going to be showcasing these new measures. This should give the issue some much needed media coverage whilst encouraging further investment in developing phone security. Getting a great new mobile phone from Vodafone has never been easier according to Bonny Kominek, an expert in communications technology.