How does theft aware work

All Rights Reserved. Designed by Lifeline. Vehicle Theft Awareness Sep 9, Brantford Police Service are warning the public regarding a new trend involving vehicle thefts in the City of Brantford. Upon further investigation, police have determined that six vehicles within the last week have been stolen with the use of Relay and Reprogramming technology. Sometime overnight between Saturday, September 4, and Sunday, September 5, , unknown suspect s attended four separate addresses in Brantford and stole vehicles that were parked in driveways and parking lots.

Reports indicate that the vehicles involved are newer model, high-end vehicles with keyless entry and push start technology.

The thefts have typically occurred in the overnight hours. How does relay vehicle theft work? The suspect will approach a residence and use technology to find a key fob signal from inside a residence.

The technology allows the suspects to remain outside the residence to amplify and transfer the key fob signal in order to unlock, start and steal the vehicle. Identity theft has become one of the fastest-growing crimes in America today.

Identity theft is the deliberate assumption of another individual's identity, usually to gain access to a person's finances or to frame that person for a crime.

Identity theft is primarily used to perform financial transactions using accounts in your name. These can be making purchases using a credit card number or taking out a loan for a car. Less commonly, it is used to obtain medical insurance, file fraudulent tax returns, impersonate another individual during an arrest, open phone or wireless services, or even attempt blackmail. Personal identity information can be stolen by rummaging through rubbish for sensitive documents, infiltrating organizations that manage large amounts of personal information, and hacking into computer systems.

For more information, and for guidance on what to do if you believe you are a victim of identity theft, visit the Federal Trade Commission's website on identity theft. The main reason I'm fascinated with Theft Aware is its superb integration with rooted phones.

The benefits of Theft Aware's elevated security features on rooted phones are so great that, in my opinion, rooting is worth it if you've haven't done so yet just to get the full TA experience. There is a lot of information, so please bear with me. I recommend you read it in full to get the grasp of just what TA's main developer, Reinhard Holzner, has accomplished. This article deals with a couple of advanced topics.

Before I jump into the walk-through, I want to highlight the top Theft Aware features, starting with the most important ones marking those possible only with rooted phones accordingly. Note that because I'm reviewing the version running on a rooted phone, your mileage may vary, especially if you don't have root:.

The above features immediately captured my attention, but the list doesn't stop there. We're just getting started. The rest of the features are not as mind blowing, but they do deserve a mention nonetheless:. What an impressive list, isn't it? Enough with the features, however. Let me show you what Theft Aware looks like and how it performed in my testing.

Theft Aware integrates deep into your Android device and sits there, invisibly and securely, listening for incoming SMS messages containing application directives.

This behavior is radically different from software like Lookout or WaveSecure, which provide you with an online interface and an account - just read this account of a severe vulnerability in WaveSecure to understand why that may be a bad idea. Theft Aware's strength is its independence on the presence of an Internet connection, relying exclusively on SMS messaging. No accounts are created and no data is stored on remote servers. A lot of hard work went into making the installation, which happens to be one of the most important steps in Theft Aware, streamlined and robust.

Here is what it looks like:. Upon the first reboot, Theft Aware completely disappeared from all app lists, just as promised. Theft Aware sprung into action and showed me its settings screens.

Before that, however, it offered to become a device admin, which is a new feature in Froyo, giving full wipe capabilities.