Apple, Samsung Take Steps to Combat Cellphone Theft but Pressed to Do More

In their latest products, both Apple and Samsung are taking steps to make stolen phones less useful to those who purloin them. Apple is adding an “activation lock” option in iOS 7 that would prevent thieves from reactivating a stolen phone, while Samsung has partnered with Absolute Software to add a “kill switch” in the Galaxy S4. But more needs to be done, say San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who convened a meeting with those companies, along with Google and Microsoft. “The smartphone industry has a responsibility to take action to end the rising and increasingly dangerous epidemic of smartphone theft,” the two officials said in a statement. “Apple and Samsung have taken steps in the right direction, but it is clear to us that the industry as a whole has more work to do to protect consumers from violent street crimes.”