Soon the high-pitched annoying ringtone you hear in the cinema might not be someone who forgot to turn their mobile off. A new service can remotely set a phone to start screaming out loud when it's lost or stolen.
Remote XT allows victims of mobile phone theft to strike back. The new service gives users the ability to cause their phone to give off an ear-piercing screech which can only be stopped if the battery is removed..
The alarm noise is accompanied by a message, reading: "This phone is stolen".
The service is backed by the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum and is aimed at businessmen and women.
With mobile phones becoming capable of holding increasing amounts of information - from bank and credit card details to personal identification particulars - handset security is more critical than ever. If a phone is stolen security commands are issued remotely and immediately erases all data stored on the phone and completely locks the device. Even when the thief removes the SIM card, the phone remains completely unusable and therefore worthless.
Today's smartphones can be a users office out of the office, and as such can contain sensitive information such as emails, passwords, and contact data, the release of which could case embarrassing leaks therefore it's vital that they don't fall into the wrong hands
On average, it takes only 30 seconds for someone to notice that their phone is missing, compared to an hour for a wallet or purse. Thieves can't get far in that time allowing victims of mobile phone theft to hear their handset's cry for help.
If the phone is not recovered the service also has the ability to completely restore the phone back to normal. Because all the data held on the handset is constantly updated on a central computer it can be simply and instantly restored on a new phone, cutting out the hassle of manually entering all previous data.
"By making mobiles unusable to anyone but the rightful owner, the phones become worthless and we'll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all," said Mark Whiteman, Managing Director of Remote XT. "Theft proof phones spell disaster for the huge criminal industry that has profited from mobile theft for too long."
The alarm noise is accompanied by a message, reading: "This phone is stolen".
The service is backed by the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum and is aimed at businessmen and women.
With mobile phones becoming capable of holding increasing amounts of information - from bank and credit card details to personal identification particulars - handset security is more critical than ever. If a phone is stolen security commands are issued remotely and immediately erases all data stored on the phone and completely locks the device. Even when the thief removes the SIM card, the phone remains completely unusable and therefore worthless.
Today's smartphones can be a users office out of the office, and as such can contain sensitive information such as emails, passwords, and contact data, the release of which could case embarrassing leaks therefore it's vital that they don't fall into the wrong hands
On average, it takes only 30 seconds for someone to notice that their phone is missing, compared to an hour for a wallet or purse. Thieves can't get far in that time allowing victims of mobile phone theft to hear their handset's cry for help.
If the phone is not recovered the service also has the ability to completely restore the phone back to normal. Because all the data held on the handset is constantly updated on a central computer it can be simply and instantly restored on a new phone, cutting out the hassle of manually entering all previous data.
"By making mobiles unusable to anyone but the rightful owner, the phones become worthless and we'll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all," said Mark Whiteman, Managing Director of Remote XT. "Theft proof phones spell disaster for the huge criminal industry that has profited from mobile theft for too long."