Back in May we reported that the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had written a letter to Apple, Samsung, Google and Motorola asking them about their work on curbing smartphone thefts. Stolen phones are wiped clean and the resold on the black market, however such thefts are likely to turn violent and even result in murder. Its definitely a grave concern, one that has been reiterated by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. He’s sent a letter to the aforementioned companies in addition to BlackBerry, HTC, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony, calling on them to use their expertise to curb smartphone thefts.
Johnson says in this letter that while companies tout how secure their devices are in terms of software, they aren’t taking meaningful steps to make the hardware safe as well. He says in the letter that “business cannot and must not benefit directly from smartphone theft through sales of replacement devices.” The fact of the matter is that many of these companies already offer solutions that let customers remotely wipe and even lock their devices. However it doesn’t mean that the buck stops here, more innovative ways can be found to reduce smartphone thefts. If anyone can do it, its these folks.
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