{"id":635826,"date":"2026-06-13T01:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635826\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T01:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T01:18:14","slug":"iphone-user-the-new-security-setting-you-need-to-know-about-as-police-target-stolen-phone-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635826\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone user? The new security setting you need to know about as police target ‘stolen phone epidemic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Devon MP claims ‘big win’ as Met Police and Apple join forces to crash the value of stolen mobile phones\"Using<\/p>\n

Using a smartphone<\/p>\n

A Devon MP is claiming a \u2018big win\u2019 after the Metropolitan Police revealed fresh plans to tackle an epidemic of mobile phone theft.<\/p>\n

The Met is calling on tech firms to make stolen phones harder to use once they have been taken from their owners – preventing criminals from profiting.<\/p>\n

Newton Abbot<\/a> Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley has been calling for action on the issue for a year.<\/p>\n

He has criticised phone companies for not introducing measures which would stop stolen phones being brought back into use once they have been shipped overseas.<\/p>\n

Police have now begun sharing data with Apple<\/a> so they can create an overview of what happens to stolen handsets.<\/p>\n

Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley told the BBC<\/a> : \u201cIf stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them.<\/p>\n

He said illicit software allowed thieves to \u2018factory reset\u2019 and then sell them on again. Now Apple – maker of the iPhone – thinks it has found a solution, meaning the majority of phones stolen in London in recent weeks have not been reset.<\/p>\n

If an iPhone user is not identified as being at a familiar location such as home or work, a setting now delays the ability for thieves to change critical security information, giving the owner more time to protect their missing phones remotely.<\/p>\n

“I’d never say we’re going to get down to zero crime, but this is going to make a massive difference,” Commissioner Rowley told the BBC. “If they can only be broken up for parts, if you start to make it harder for criminals, they will steal fewer of them.”<\/p>\n

\"Newton<\/p>\n

Newton Abbot MP Martin Wrigley – May 2026 image (Image: Roger Harris Photography\/Martin Wrigley)<\/p>\n

Mr Wrigley, a former engineer in the high-tech industry, said he had written a \u2018lost and stolen\u2019 system for Orange 30 years ago which had an international blacklist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell’s gone wrong?\u201d he asked police and phone industry representatives during a House of Commons committee session.<\/p>\n

He criticised phone manufacturers for continuing to make profits from phone sales and systems after handsets had been stolen, which would not happen if they were removed from the system.<\/p>\n

He told them: \u201cYou could, tomorrow, stop phones that are on the blacklist from connecting back to your services if you so wished, and you won’t do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou owe it to the customers around the world to implement this immediately. No ifs, no buts, just do it.\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devon MP claims ‘big win’ as Met Police and Apple join forces to crash the value of stolen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[304,243,924,3596,2306,33822,229,86,126816,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-635826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apple","tag-bbc","tag-crime","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-mobile","tag-newton-abbot","tag-politics","tag-technology","tag-teignbridge","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}