Dateline i-Jacking?
Did anyone else see the "To Catch an i-Jacker" Dateline NBC special that ran last night? Despite the terrible name and general "badness" of the Chris Hansen stuff in general - it again raised a couple of questions that I wanted to throw out to everyone.
As they demonstrate in the show I'm sure Apple could use the personal info imbedded in the iPod and your registration info from iTunes to help track some stolen items (ala LoJack), but I'm not sure if they really need to get into the law enforcement arena. I'm sure there are numerous legal and privacy issues that would crop up in a heartbeat, plus just the overwhelming number of reports that would flood in would either a.) bury them forever in a sea of paperwork or b.) require them to add tons of new staff to deal with the volume.
The interesting bit seems to be not tracking the item after it's stolen, but rather making it less appealing to steal in the first place. If people knew that the device could be tracked if stolen, or wouldn't work if it was stolen, some of the appeal to take it in the first place is gone. Dateline mentioned something near the end of the program that was news to me - that Apple had recently applied for patents that would prevent an iPod or iPhone from charging if the device couldn't validate that it was the owner trying to charge it. I remembered the article below about some theft prevention patents using accelerometers, but hadn't heard anything about this "charging validation" patent. Anyone else?
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=74574
Anyone else want to chime in on what manufacturers should or shouldn't do to prevent theft or help to track stolen items? What software could come preloaded that might make it easier to recover or disable a stolen device, or less appealing to take in the first place? How many seconds would it take for hackers to figure our a way around this software if it was installed?
Here is a link to the MSNBC page about the show last night:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20078671
As they demonstrate in the show I'm sure Apple could use the personal info imbedded in the iPod and your registration info from iTunes to help track some stolen items (ala LoJack), but I'm not sure if they really need to get into the law enforcement arena. I'm sure there are numerous legal and privacy issues that would crop up in a heartbeat, plus just the overwhelming number of reports that would flood in would either a.) bury them forever in a sea of paperwork or b.) require them to add tons of new staff to deal with the volume.
The interesting bit seems to be not tracking the item after it's stolen, but rather making it less appealing to steal in the first place. If people knew that the device could be tracked if stolen, or wouldn't work if it was stolen, some of the appeal to take it in the first place is gone. Dateline mentioned something near the end of the program that was news to me - that Apple had recently applied for patents that would prevent an iPod or iPhone from charging if the device couldn't validate that it was the owner trying to charge it. I remembered the article below about some theft prevention patents using accelerometers, but hadn't heard anything about this "charging validation" patent. Anyone else?
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=74574
Anyone else want to chime in on what manufacturers should or shouldn't do to prevent theft or help to track stolen items? What software could come preloaded that might make it easier to recover or disable a stolen device, or less appealing to take in the first place? How many seconds would it take for hackers to figure our a way around this software if it was installed?
Here is a link to the MSNBC page about the show last night:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20078671
Comments
Besides, i-jacking sounds like something done under a bridge by a homeless man while watching porno on a stolen blackberry
However, the bigger picture here is that the technology we're dealing with has advanced to the point where tracking or disabling IS possible and could be used if manufacturers? wanted to implement it. 20 years ago if your car was stolen there wasn't much that could be done about it other than cross your fingers and hope the police had a lead or two. Now we have things like OnStar and LoJack that can make recovery much easier regardless of why your car got stolen in the first place. The new technology has been developed and has now made it's way into the marketplace. I think the same will happen for more of these small consumer electronic devices.
So I don't think it's a matter of "if" but a question of "when" and "what form it will take". It will also provide the first company out of the gate with some nice bragging rights and new bullet point for their sales brochure.
and yeah - iJacking is a terrible name. Possible companion to the now famous iBrator?