Steve Jobs calls home to Apple and catches an iPad thief!

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Geolocation and related technologies that keep track of you and your devices have loomed large and Big Brotherishly in recent Naked Security coverage.

We've written about TrapWire, a surveillance system that makes use of real-time facial profiling to search databases of red-flagged individuals.

We've reported on the social networking overexuberance of Michael Dell's daughter Alexa, leading to her being suspended from Twitter for being too open with details of the family's activities and whereabouts on social networks.

And - having advised Alexa Dell to turn geolocation off, on the grounds that regular and precise updates of your whereabouts are a form of personally identifiable information - Naked Security has looked more closely into the risks of geolocation, as exemplified by WeKnowYourHouse, a website which aims to show everyone where you live based on your tweets.

Is there a good side to geolocation and on-line tracking?

Seems there is.

About a month ago, a down-on-his-luck burglar allegedly pinched goods to the value of $60,000 from the Silicon Valley house of Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late turtleneck afficionado and Apple co-founder, Steve.

The accused tea-leaf, a certain Mr McFarlin, apparently couldn't resist using one of the iPads he'd nicked to access his own iTunes account.

McFarlin obviously failed to notice the late Mr Jobs's driving licence in the wallet he trousered along with all the other loot - which was a costly oversight.

Of all the call home signals received by Apple's infrastructure, you'd want to bet that a beyond-the-grave WHOOP! WHOOP! STOLEN IPAD ALERT! report from a Jobsian device (and in this context, I mean Jobsian quite literally, not merely in a general economico-spiritual sense) would enjoy the same sort of special attention as "Friend Request from Elvis" and "Voicemail from Alexander Graham Bell."

And so it turned out.

The iPad's call home provided both identity and location for the most likely suspect, who was arrested and is now stuck in jail.

(McFarlin couldn't make the $500,000 bail. Not even with the contents of Steve Jobs's wallet - he was down to his last $1, apparently.)

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Geolocation "booooooop" image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Apple's iCloud syncs stolen iPhone photos to nab thief

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Katy McCaffrey *had* an iPhone. Until it was stolen aboard the Disney cruise ship Wonder on her April vacation. What to do? As is frequently the case these days, the cloud holds the answer.

After returning home sans iPhone, McCaffrey discovered that photos were showing up in her Apple iCloud account from her missing device.

Taking advantage of the openness of social media and the ability for average folks to get the word out McCaffrey decided to post the photos to Facebook in an attempt to identify the thief.

Titled "Stolen iPhone Adventures" McCaffrey posted humorous captions on the photos allegedly being posted by a crew member named Nelson. The media caught wind of the story and tens of thousands flocked to the page bringing it to the attention of Disney.

It is unclear whether Nelson was in fact the thief, or if he simply purchased the stolen phone from someone else on board the ship. It isn't looking good for him at the moment though.

A Disney spokesperson told USA Today that they had recovered the phone and have placed the crew member on administrative leave and restricted him from guest areas on the ship.

The spokesperson also stated "We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior, We are taking aggressive action."

This story does raise some legitimate concerns about smartphone safety however. If your phone is stolen, you should immediately report it stolen and cancel the service to prevent the thief from racking up a large cellular phone bill.

McCaffrey clearly was using Apple's iCloud service, so why did she not take advantage of the remote lock/remote wipe service that is part of iCloud?

Playing amateur detective rarely works out the way it appears to have this time and even without the photos the "Find my iPhone" app would likely have allowed law enforcement to locate the thief.

It would also appear that McCaffrey did not bother to secure her phone with a password. Last summer 70% of smartphone users admitted to not using a passcode in a Sophos survey.

The good news? McCaffrey will get her iPhone back and the thief will be investigated for the crime.

The lesson? Don't take chances like McCaffrey. While this story may be entertaining, you are far better off to secure your device, ensure your data is erased if it's stolen and take advantage of our free mobile security toolkit.

http://twitter.com/chetwisniewski

Creative Commons photo of Disney's Wonder cruise ship courtesy of Justin Champion.

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