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Can someone explain it to me? Currently, all phones have a network radio with a unique identifier making it trivial for any and all networks to not allow access to stolen phones. So why is a mandatory kill switch that is capable of deleting data required since the technology already supports it? Even with a SIM card you still have the radio on the phone.
Next will we have mandatory kill switches on Laptops?
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Not all carriers have a stolen/lost list and it's not always accurate anyway.
Even for those carriers who do, most of the phones end up in foreign countries where the IMEI ID is irrelevant.
The kill switch will not only delete the data, it will render the phone useless. That is, it will "kill" the phone.
The market for stolen phones is annually in billions of dollars globally.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Kill in your context implies permanent destruction of the device, yet from what I read, the data will be recoverable when the phone is recovered. How do you "kill" hardware with software when fresh software is merely a flash away? A write once burner chip? That is replaceable with a solder gun a few minutes of time?
Who kills the phone? The consumer? Or the government that wants to shut down comms in an area? Seems like a good weapon.
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Cell phone thefts soar as advocates hail 'kill switch'[^]
Quote: That's why New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon formed the Secure Our Smartphones (S.O.S.) initiative to push for "kill switch" technology in all new smartphones.
Throw that kill switch and the phone would never work again—anywhere in the world. That, they say, would remove the economic incentive for this crime
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Sounds like politicians making retarded decisions about technology they don't understand at the behest of lobbyists
yet again.
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And they're making that decision at the behest of customer's ire at being the victims of crime.
Yet again.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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ahmed zahmed wrote: And they're making that decision at the behest of customer's ire at being the victims of crime.
That would be the right reason, but the action taken also has to be the right one.
This kill switch idea would cost an incredible amount to implement and enforce, but workarounds for bad guys (who either want to steal phones or kill their victims' phones) would require a trivial amount of effort.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: This kill switch idea would cost an incredible amount to implement and enforce,
Not so. It's a simple thing for phone vendors (Samsung, Apple) to implement and provide. In fact, it's already available on some phones, but the carriers refuse to enable it.
Mark_Wallace wrote: workarounds ... would require a trivial amount of effort.
I don't believe that's true. The only workaround would be to turn the phone off. As soon as you turn it on, *boom* it blows up. The other possibility is to do surgery on the phone to remove the chip, but that's too much effort.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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ahmed zahmed wrote: Not so.
'Fraid so. Making it mandatory means monitoring by and clearance from external entities -- yet another thing for governments to stick their noses into and profit from.
ahmed zahmed wrote: The only workaround would be to turn the phone off.
Yup, and no-one will ever be able to copy encrypted DVDs, or hack games.
ahmed zahmed wrote: As soon as you turn it on, *boom* it blows up.
Something has to be loaded to issue the kill command, no?
Hacked within three days. Betcha.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Mark_Wallace wrote: 'Fraid so.
I never said anything about mandatory, I'd much rather voluntary. But since the carriers are being too greedy and stoopeed then the threat of mandatory is making them do the "voluntary".
Mark_Wallace wrote: no-one
Nothing's perfect! Even the locks on your doors only keep your friends out and the casual and inept burglar.
Mark_Wallace wrote: loaded to issue the kill
No. A simple radio signal reception will do.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: How do you "kill" hardware with software when fresh software is merely a flash away?
It's possible to kill hardware with software through the use of something called a fuse bit. This is an area of memory that, when written to, burns the fuse and becomes permanently open, or a zero.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: Who kills the phone? The consumer? Or the government that wants to shut down comms in an area? Seems like a good weapon.
In Pakistan, cellphones have been used to trigger IEDs.
In India, our politicians are smarter. They order the phone companies to disable communications with the nearest cell tower if they are travelling through an area or attending a function some place. Your perfectly OK phone will suddenly lose signal and will regain it only after the politician (or his family) has moved a safe distance away.
You sanitize an entire area not by "killing" the cellphone but by disabling the communication tower.
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I had the idea of activating every phone for a split second every few minutes, like a handshake.
This would serve to detonate IED's prematurely, hopefully.
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At least once during the iraq war the US Airforce allegedly did that; using an EW aircraft to mass dial thousands of phones/second. Most variants of the story claim we blew up a few bomb factories and that the enemy went back to hard wired detonation systems afterward. The latter should be independently verifiable.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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"That is replaceable with a solder gun a few minutes of time?"
I consider myself pretty handy with a soldering iron, and I seriously doubt I have the skills to open up & replace a chip on the tiny printed circuit board of a modern smartphone.
I'm not saying it isn't possible. But if you need a shop with skilled technicians to perform physical replacement of a chip, as well as a supply of said chips which presumably you must buy from the manufacturer, then you've definitely succeeded in lowering the immediate value of a stolen phone by quite a bit. This is not something that could be done by any petty thieves, so it requires infrastucture, money, organization, skilled workers, and so on.
Not saying it couldn't happen, but at that point, you might as well just make knockoff phones.
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: Who kills the phone? The consumer? Or the government that wants to shut down comms in an area? Seems like a good weapon.
Weapon? Naw. Seems like good potential amusement for a hacker though.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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ahmed zahmed wrote: The kill switch will not only delete the data, it will render the phone useless. That is, it will "kill" the phone.
I can't wait until this is added to all phones. We can be absolutely positive that the code will be perfect and will never accidentally delete everything on your phone and brick it. Or when some intrepid fellow sends the "kill" command to an entire network. I'm also 100% sure that the min wage worker will never type the number in wrong and brick someone else's phone accidentally.
Because it sounds like a great idea, I'm sure it is for the children. More likely it is so politicians can erase their phone or their mistress's phone to prevent those pics and saucy texts from leaking. 
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Two Words: Government Control.
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It's so the government can control communications. That's ALL it's for.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I'd vote for public-access kill switches on bloggers and marketing morons.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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First,
I love the idea, and want it. here is what I understand:
1) It disables the phone, until the phone is brought into a service center, and the person verifies they are the proper owner. Then they allow the phone to be on the network again, and function. (Does not permanently destroy)
2) It Blanks the phone, so your personal data is not in there. (but in my case, most can be retrieved once I sign back into the phone and sync with google). I will probably lose my high scores on sudoku and 2048 
3) It Locks the phone from being usable
4) It serves as a STRONG deterrent to being stolen. Who wants a phone, that within a couple of hours will be useless?
5) I strongly believe that part of the reason is so that our government can disable a bunch of phones for Cliven Bundy supports, just to piss them off...
6) I also feel that if Senators, or Congressman are going to be caught, they will order their phones zapped, even while they are sitting in a police evidence locker...
Now, what will happen?
1) Some smart kids will show people that they put the phone into a foil bag upon stealing it.
2) They only open the phone inside of a radio free zone
3) They hack the phone with software, and disable the feature through some kind of DEBUG mode that the stupid phone company left enabled
4) At least the phone will be usable, with all of the data on it still... Although the communications will be disabled, until they can figure a way to change the chips (as someone else mentioned... very difficult).
It will again give us ANOTHER chance to give up freedom in exchange for FEELING more secure.
As long as we know, we know what to avoid.
I like the idea of wiping the phone, AND FORCING IT to send us it's GPS Coordinates when it does it!
This way they can actually show us
"Your Phone has been disabled... When you find it upstairs in the spare bedroom on the dresser to NE corner of the room, where you have at least 1 unregistered gun... Bring it in to get it re-enabled for a small fee!"
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Unique identifiers on phones can be changed by flashing, but yeah, you're right, it should be trivial for network operators to block such devices from being used on their networks. I think that a kill switch is a good idea, but it could be abused by governments or resourceful hackers.
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It is trivial for networks to not allow the phones onto the network, yes, but that's only part of the question. You mention deleting data, which is the rest of the issue. The existence of a mere network identifier doesn't make it possible to actually delete anything or prevent the phone from booting up, reading data, using WiFi, and so on, it only works to keep the phone from working as a phone.
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