New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón together with experts from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center will examine today how Apple’s Activation Lock trait holds up against determined thieves, after initiating an investigation into the anti-theft practices of smartphone manufacturers like Apple, CNET reports.
As introduced at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Activation Lock is intended to stop “Find my Phone” from being disengaged, which keeps stolen iPhones from being reformatted and reactivated. The feature is integrated in iOS 7, which is anticipated to be released in the market this fall. The team of experts will also test Lojack for Android software on Samsung Galaxy S4.
“While we are appreciative of the efforts made by Apple and Samsung to improve security of the devices they sell, we are not going to take them at their word. Today, we will assess the solutions they are proposing and see if they stand up to the tactics commonly employed by thieves.”, Schneiderman and Gascón stated.
The testing was proclaimed as part of Schneiderman and Gascón’s “Secure Our Smartphone (S.O.S.)” proposal that looks to guard Smartphone owners from vicious theft and stealing known as “Apple picking”.
The test is purportedly imitating the real world set-up, wherein a stolen device is deactivated prior to reselling on the black market. Apple’s Activation Lock, the original Apple ID and Password that are used to activate the device are needed to turn off “Find my iPhone”, wipe the phone’s data, or reactivate it after being deactivated.
Schneiderman and Gascón were very positive about Apple’s anti-theft initiative but said “we reserve judgment on the activation lock feature until we can understand its actual functionality.”
“Finding technical solutions that will remove economic value of stolen Samrtphones are critical to ending the national epidemic of violent street crimes commonly known as ‘Apple Picking’.”
Results are scheduled to be obtained by the end of the day.
