Yahoo Finance Kill Switch: US Carriers Resist Security Feature
Mobile phone carriers in the US have been accused of "shaking down" customers for billions of dollars after refusing to install "kill switches" on devices.
Lost and stolen mobile devices cost consumers more than $30bn (£18bn) last year, according to a recent study.
However the biggest carriers - AT&T (NYSE: T - news) , Verizon Wireless, US Cellular, Sprint Corporation (NYSE: S - news) and T-Mobile - have rejected Samsung's offer of installing its anti-theft technology.
They say a kill switch would allow a hacker to disable someone's phone.
Almost one in three US robberies involve phone theft, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), leading law enforcement officials to demand a solution.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon claims to have seen an email between a senior Samsung official and a software developer.
It said Samsung had pre-installed kill switch software in some smartphones ready for shipment, but carriers ordered their removal as a standard feature.
"These emails suggest that the carriers are rejecting a technological solution so they can continue to shake down their customers for billions of dollars in (theft) insurance premiums," Mr Gascon said.
"I'm incensed. This is a solution that has the potential to end the victimisation of their customers."
The Wireless Association, a trade group for wireless providers, said it has been working with the FCC, law enforcement agencies and elected officials on a national stolen phone database scheduled to launch on November 30.
It says a permanent kill switch has serious risks, including potential vulnerability to hackers who could disable mobile devices and lock out not only individuals' phones, but also phones used by entities such as the Department of Defence, Homeland Security and law enforcement agencies.
"The problem is how do you trigger a kill switch in a secure manner and not be compromised by a third party and be subjected to hacking," said James Moran, a security adviser for a UK-based trade group.
Currently Samsung Galaxy smartphones are shipped across the US without its LoJack (Stuttgart: LOJ.SG - news) security software as a standard feature. Users can pay a subscription fee for the service.
And a new activation lock feature, designed to prevent thieves from turning off the Find My iPhone application, has been installed on Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) devices in a recent software release.
Both these security features are now being tested by federal and state security experts.
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