It looks as though the London Metropolitan Police (otherwise known as ‘the Met’) has the strong belief that every new smartphone that is sold in the UK ought to feature a password for security purposes. In fact, the Met looks as though they have been lobbying the government and device manufacturers, Apple and Samsung included, for the past couple of years so that this particular policy can be implemented. The Met’s National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) has performed a research that pointed out that up to 60% of devices used by the British are not password protected, or PIN-code protected.
This lack of security obviously makes it a whole lot easier for thieves to simply wipe devices that are stolen before selling them on the cheap in the second hand market, not to mention also gain access to the data that has been stashed on it.
Detective Chief Inspector Bob Mahoney, the person who is leading the NMPCU at the moment said, “We have intelligence that shows a phone with personal information is worth more than other mobiles, because the thief can sell it to anyone who can make use of that info. On an unlocked phone, you can find a person’s home address, home telephone number, their partner’s details, their diary, Facebook and Twitter account. This allows thieves to know when a target is not going to be at home or perhaps use their details to set up banking loans. They could destroy a person’s life.”
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