0725-Anti-theft function to be featured in smartphones in Korea?

 Smartphone robbery has become a big social issue in some developed countries. There is criticism over the lack of services from the mobile service providers for dealing with stolen/lost smartphones. With the recent efforts in the US between the government and private companies to resolve this issue, many are wondering if the solution will make its way to Korea.

In the US, Samsung will put in a function that makes misplaced phones basically useless, as early as within this month. It’s a ‘kill switch’ that completely cuts off a misplaced phone’s functions, even if the owner doesn’t know its location. Samsung is currently under discussions with the government, law enforcement authorities, major manufacturers and mobile service providers to put the kill switch function inside commercial smartphones.

The kill switch acts as a remote, and the manufacturer, carrier or government send a command to a misplaced phone that will make it useless. When properly functioned, the thief will not be able to recover the phone even if he hacks the software or changes the SIM.

Hopefully, this will stop the trade of stolen devices as they will become useless when stolen. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and District Attorney of San Francisco George Gascon requested Google, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft and other smartphone OS/device manufacturers to include the kill switch function on their phones.

▲ With smartphone robberies becoming a big social issue in Korea and overseas, there is a lot of attention on whether the government will implement kill switches on smartphones

Samsung, the biggest Android phone manufacturer, expressed its will to include the kill switch function in its phones starting as early as this month. LG is also developing such technology, but it’s not yet finished, and the release date remains unrevealed.

The kill switch will likely embedded on devices through free software downloads or system updates, not with the release of separate devices. The main agreement with the judges, politicians and ‘Secure Our Smartphones’, a consumer group established to deal with smartphone crimes, was that the added function would come without any additional fees for the consumer.

A Samsung official commented today regarding the inclusion of kill switch functionality in US phones, “We will not charge any extra fees for the function. We don’t have confirmed release dates.”

Although the manufacturers haven’t discussed the inclusion of the function in areas outside the US, now is the right time to consider its possibilities in Korea. The number phones that were reported lost but was never found reach 940,000 on all three carriers combined. Compared to 2009, the number of cellphone robberies increased by 457.4%.

Currently, in Korea, if the user reports his lost phone to his carrier, the device becomes unavailable for use in the country. However, this has lead to an increase in international trade of the stolen smartphones. Even if the criminals cannot use the phones themselves, they can sell it overseas for a lot of money, so they go on conducting smartphone robberies.


For the manufacturers to include the kill switch functionality in smartphones, an agreement between the government, law enforcement authorities, software developers and mobile service providers seem necessary. The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning has started cooperating with the Police and Korea Customs Service in putting a halt to the illegal trade of smartphones.

Last April, the MSIP made an agreement with the Police and Korea Customs Service to conduct cooperative investigations for lost smartphones by providing IMEIs of smartphones and strengthening export inspections. Furthermore, the Police will conduct cooperative investigations with the Department of Public Peace in China, where a huge chunk of the stolen smartphones are sent to, and share IMEIs of misplaced phones as well as work to arrest habitual offenders.

It’s likely that the inclusion of the kill switch function will need a cooperation between the government, law enforcement authorities and private companies. However, the government body related to the matter did not reveal the details of their plans.

“We are aware that the manufacturers already know the methods of blocking illegal trade of stolen or lost smartphones. We do not know about the plans outside of what’s being discussed with the MSIP and Korea Customs Service,” a Police official said.

Though the MSIP official interviewed did not provide a clear answer, he hinted that the government is preparing to implement a system similar to the kill switch.

▲ The Activation Lock locks up an iPhone or iPad until the owner logs on to his iTunes account

Meanwhile, Apple is preparing a feature called ‘Activation Lock’, to be included in iOS7. Currently Apple has released the third developer beta for iOS7, and will be distributing the official release in fall.

The Activation Lock locks up a lost iPhone or iPad, making it unusable. The locked screen will only show the contact information of the original owner. The only way to get out of lock mode is by resetting the data through logging on to the owner’s iTunes account. The new feature will be available for free to all iPhone and iPad users of all supported generations.

“Strictly speaking, the Activation Lock is different from a kill switch which makes a phone totally useless. The user can unlock the device whenever they wish and he won’t have to call his carrier to block network connections,” an Apple Korea official said. Even Korean users will be able to use the Activation Lock feature right away after they get the iOS7 update.