Gangs are using increasingly sophisticated kit to steal cars

10 petethomas 3 8/19/2025, 4:14:47 PM economist.com ↗

Comments (3)

joshstrange · 1h ago
> MPs have argued, for example, that Apple could easily undermine the business model of phone-snatchers by introducing a “kill switch”, but it won’t because of “strong commercial incentives”.

MPs are stupid then. Which thankfully this article points out. Apple (and I assume Android) already allow for remote bricking/locking of your devices. Apple won't let you disable Find My or other security measures without your passcode and Apple has a way to disable turning off Find My if you aren't home/normal location (so if someone snatches your phone while you are out and they also shoulder-surfed your passcode they still can't disable it).

I have no clue what "strong commercial incentives" these MPs are referring to but I assume it's just general (tech or otherwise) incompetency of elected officials.

eszed · 2h ago
That's interesting, but really broad. Does anyone have anything that goes into the technical details of these new techniques? I'm interested in these "£20k devices": what they do, how, and who makes, sells, and maintains them.
asquabventured · 3h ago