iOS 6 fixes bug that sent iMessages to stolen iPhones

arstechnica.com

12 points·markshepard··7 comments

From the comments:

Is it me or is it slightly worrying that they seem to have implemented these changes at a client level, meaning that someone could by-pass them with custom software, instead of doing it properly and having the server refuse to send out messages once the phone has been wiped / unregistered?

Surely all of this is a backend thing and should not have any client component at all.

A reasonable service would have the list of connected decices available online for you to disable any of the devices at any time (as well as obviously removing a device when it's reported stolen). However knowing apple they'd put it in iTunes instead of making it a website (super useful if you're traveling without your computer!), and more likely they just won't do it all.

You have a list of your registered devices on iCloud.com, but I don't know what effect removing a device there has on the device's connections to various Apple services.

It's always boggled me that mobile operators (and the Police) do very little to help try and trace stolen phones, or share IMEI block lists amongst operators.

Tying stolen IMEIs to IMSIs (when the phone is sold on or reused) should lead to a large number of recovered phones as not every stolen phone will be reused with a pre-paid SIM (and therefore untraceable IMSI).

Don't they do this in the UK?

There is a central blacklist of IMEIs for stolen phones. This seems to work pretty well (anecdotally, many stolen phones are sent out of the country)

I don't think that the police do anything like this for actually tracing stolen phones though.

Were the police able to track the stolen phone down? How did they know iMessages were being sent to the stolen device?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com