Mobile phone theft

I wanted to provide an update regarding Mobile phone theft, which some members around this area have highlighted as an issue of concern on the Met Engage priority survey.

Operation HOPI (Harvesting Of Personal Information) is the Metropolitan Police's response to the increase of further theft being suffered by victims of mobile phone robbery, by way of thieves utilising weaknesses in banking apps and other systems to steal personal data and money. The following advice will help to guard against this:

•Setting a strong screenlock password or PIN number. The Metropolitan Police Service have published advice on creating strong passwords on our website; www.met.police.uk/littlemedia
•Consideration around adopting strong passwords instead of passcodes which are harder to shoulder-surf
•Securing high-value applications and accounts held on devices (such as digital wallets and banking applications) with strong, separate passwords to the handset access code and enabling biometric authentication such as face or fingerprint identification
•Removing single sign-on/keychain auto-fills for access to high value applications
•Ensuring that manufacturer security updates are installed promptly and anti-theft features are activated (the name of theses varies between phone providers, ie, Stolen Device Protection for iPhones)
•Ensuring that applications on devices are kept up to date and security updates installed
•Utilising MFA/2FA solutions which do not send via text messages or emails to the device which can be accessed if the handset is stolen
•Advising customers to notify the bank as well as the police and telecommunications providers following the theft of a handset if they have linked accounts on the handset or downloaded financial applications
•Turning on storage encryption if this isn’t already enabled by default
•Not storing passwords, PIN numbers or recovery seeds to any digital wallets or banking applications on your phone
•Not storing photographs official ID documents which can be used to take out loans (ie, passports or driving licences) on your phone or in your email account without additional security measures
•Being aware of your surroundings when accessing your device, particularly when entering your PIN number or passcodes or physical security when your device is unlocked
•Not handing over your mobile phone to someone you’ve met on a night out (distraction techniques are also used)

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