Smartphone Security

[Mekong]

With the increasing cost of modern day smartphones they are becoming desirable items to steal with an easy resale market especially in Bangkok.

 

Apple (I know detested by most) have a great free App called Find My iPhone which I used last week when my girlfriend "Misplaced" (ie had stolen) her iPhone. Within 10 minutes of her realising it was missing we called the number and got the "Number Unavailable" message, so obviously whoever "found" the phone had binned the SIM Card and had no intention of returning it.

 

Find my iPhone tracks a device based upon IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) Number and not the SIM card, so even when new SIM is installed as soon as device goes online GPRS/EDGE or 3G it is traceable. Two days later we saw the phone online and sent SMS in both Thai and English "This is a Stolen Device, Please hand in to nearest police station and no further action will be taken", of course no response so we did a remote wipe (everything backed up on her Macbook Air) and a remote lock.

 

Following day we were out and about and tracked the pone down to a specific bar in Silom (No not Patpong) Girlfriend spoke to a nearby BIB and explained the situation and with 500 Baht back hander he was more than willing to assist, went to the bar then activated the "Play Sound" Function and we hear the "BEEP BEEP BEEP" from a Thai woman's handbag less than 5 meters away from us. Our new found BIB friend pounced on her immediately and grabbed the phone from her bag, upon simple Settings / General / About key press IMEI was read and of course it matched the record we had of the device, she was caught red handed and suitably embarrassed in front of her other plastic hiso friends.

 

After handing over the phone she tried to bribe our BIB friend 2,000 Baht to keep her from being arrested, he demanded 2,500 plus 2,000 Baht compensation for my girlfriend, after a whip round amongst her cronies 4,500 Baht was handed over. After leaving the bar we took our new found BIB friend for a bite to eat and a beer, he paid the checkbin with the initial 500 Baht we gave him and told us to keep the change, he was more than happy with the 2,000 he had just made.

 

Find my iPhone is free and works with any IOS 5 device such as an iPad as well as any MAC running OS X 10.7 (Lion), all you need is your Apple ID, definitely worth the 5 minutes installation and set up time.

 

On my Macbook Pro and mine and her's Macbook Air's I use Mackeeper, as soon as you realise device is missing you just log onto your account and hit "My Computer Was Stolen" button, not only does the software trace the location of the computer it also takes a photo of the person using it as soon as they log on and allows you to lock the machine from remote, or even wipe the HDD if you wish, that's why I use Time Capsule as a back up.

 

There always has been and always will be disagreement between Fandroids and Macfans, but I personally find Apple security features way ahead of the competition. So if you have an IOS 5 device, note down your IMEI and install find my iPhone, it may save your ass one day.

 

Kong

[kamui]

[radioman]

I've only ever tried it at home but all of our Droids and tabs have the same apps.

 

As well as getting messages when the sim is changed one of them texts you the new number each time.

 

Curious as to how you tracked it - to a bar! The GPS tracking is quite good but needs the phone to be outside and the gps needs to be enabled by the app. Failing that you would maybe get cell triangulation but that would be maybe to a 600m to 1km radius.

 

I don't have an Apple vs others beef particularly. Have owned both and chosen what I preferred. Right now looking to buy an iPhone 3G, even an 8M one will do as long as it works okay, they're cheap enough now and it's the right tool for the job I have in mind.

[Mekong]

 

 

Curious as to how you tracked it - to a bar! The GPS tracking is quite good but needs the phone to be outside and the gps needs to be enabled by the app.

 

Molly Mallones is a big bar and also the place where we think the phone was stolen, with pre-paid packages in Thailand now most people have GPRS/EDGE enabled all the time, many iPhone Apps use GPS when "Location Services" is Enabled and it works perfectly well inside buildings.

[WorldFun]

good policing job

[Vintage_Kwai]

I'm using 'Theft Aware' on my Nokia, basically the same functions, cost me all of 215 baht. You can program the phone to accept only selected SIMs, and it will lock up and alarm on any other. It is an 'invisible' install as in the app won't show up in the installed apps list and can only be accessed by password. No access, no uninstall. Expensive paperweight, though.

 

Tested the GPS function with another phone, quite accurate.

 

Good on you for teaching the thief a lesson. Wonder if it'll make an impression, though. Kleptomania is a disease.

 

Re apple. I've tried it in Sillypore, great as they have the packages and infrastructure (i.e. 3G) to use it to it's full potential. It's also really cheap over there. Didn't bother here as we're still on GPRS/ EDGE most places. The Nokia gets me my emails and some surfing away from the desktop/ laptop so until the infrastructure improves I'll live with it.

 

Galaxy 2 looking good, though.

[Julian2]

I bought my latest phone last week in Australia for $35 so it probably doesn't have this security app on it.