Lawmakers Push for 'Kill Switch' to Deter Smartphone TheftA new coalition presses Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and others to make devices unusable if stolen.

Chances are, you're carrying amobilephone on you right now. You might even be reading this very post on yoursmartphone. Chances are also increasingly high that your smartphone will, at some point, be stolen. One out of every three robberies in the U.S. involve the theft of a smartphone, according to research byConsumer Reports. Now, two prominent lawmakers have created a coalition of police, political officials and consumer advocates todeter the theftof smartphones.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón have launched the "Secure Our Smartphones" initiative. The goal is to encourage smartphone makers to develop technologies, such as a "kill switch," that make mobile devices unusable if stolen. The idea is if smartphones can't be used again, thieves will be less inclined to steal and try to re-sell them.

New York City saw a40 percent increase in mobile theftsin 2012, according to a recentTimemagazine article. And in San Francisco, approximately 50 percent of all robberies last year involved some type of mobile communications device, a statement announcing the initiative says.

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"The cell phone industry cannot ignore that smartphone theft is a crime that can be fixed with a technological solution," says Gascón in the statement.

The coalition will aim to accomplish the following tasks, among others:

• Analyze patterns, causes and trends behind the growing and increasingly violent problem of device theft.
• Work with device manufacturers to make a kill switch, or equally effective technology that would enable stolen devices to be permanently disabled, a standard feature of their products.
• Raise public and shareholder awareness about industry practices in this area.

Currently, smartphone and tablet users are able to encrypt data and lock their devices with security passwords, but devices haven't included built-in features to permanently shut them down if lost or stolen. Paid apps and services likeLookout Mobile Security提供工具能帮助找到丢失的设备吗and remote wipe and lock functions.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, Apple said it will equip new iPhones and its other mobile devices with a kill switch that allows users go online anddeactivate the devicesif they are lost or stolen. Also, Samsung is working with a company calledAbsolute Softwareto provide a kill switch --among other security features-- on the Samsung Galaxy devices.

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