Latest news with #JamesConway
The Irish Sun
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Irish Sun
More than 40 MILLION Brits alerted to switch on forgotten anti-theft mobile feature as phone snatching soars
MILLIONS of mobile users across the UK have been urged to switch on little-known anti-theft settings following a spate of phone snatches. In London alone, two-thirds of thefts now relate to mobile phones, Met Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway told MPs today. Advertisement 2 Criminal gangs are believed to make £50million a year from stolen phones Credit: PA Police The Met Police has described it as a colossal £50million-a-year trade. Often, phone thefts have more to do with raiding people's bank accounts than value in the handset itself. A victim recently revealed how they were caught out by crafty crooks who went on to spend hundreds. Advertisement Read more about mobiles Tech companies have developed a number of tools to help prevent such incidents. Google has a few for Android users which detect the motion associated with a physical snatch. When a snatch is detected your phone will lock so thieves can't go through all your banking apps and more. Samsung, which uses Android on its phones, alerted more than 40million Samsung Account holders of its anti-theft features. Advertisement Most read in Tech The firm says these features will now also be available to even more devices soon, having started with the launch of the Galaxy S25 series in February. Among Samsung's own added efforts is Theft Protection, a multi-layered suite of features developed to safeguard personal data, even in high-risk situations such as robbery. Google reveals clever trick to prevent thieves from emptying your accounts on the Android 15 "Samsung is deeply committed to working closely with the Home Office on the issue of mobile phone theft and related crimes and we're in constant collaboration with our partners across the industry, to look at new and existing solutions to help combat this complex issue and ultimately help improve the safety of mobile phone users," said Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience (MX) VP of Product and Marketing, UK&I at Samsung. "Our recent One UI 7 update built further on existing protections with new anti-theft features such as identity check, biometric authentication and security delay, all featured in our latest Galaxy S25 series. Advertisement "These features have now also been rolled out into a range of models across our devices and further updates will follow. "We must do everything we can to ensure the safety and security of our customers when they are using their mobile devices and we will continue to work hard to ensure our customers are aware of the wide range of security features available to them." How to turn on Theft Detection Lock To turn on Theft Detection Lock on a Samsung phone, follow these steps: Go to Settings Select Security and privacy Tap Lost device protection Go to Theft protection Switch the Theft detection option on 2 Police want tech firms to do more to prevent phone thefts Credit: PA Advertisement Must-know Android tips to boost your phone Get the most out of your Android smartphone with these little-known hacks:
Scottish Sun
03-06-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
More than 40 MILLION Brits alerted to switch on forgotten anti-theft mobile feature as phone snatching soars
MILLIONS of mobile users across the UK have been urged to switch on little-known anti-theft settings following a spate of phone snatches. In London alone, two-thirds of thefts now relate to mobile phones, Met Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway told MPs today. 2 Criminal gangs are believed to make £50million a year from stolen phones Credit: PA Police seized more than 1,000 stolen handsets and arrested 230 people in a single week earlier this year in a crackdown on the problem. The Met Police has described it as a colossal £50million-a-year trade. Often, phone thefts have more to do with raiding people's bank accounts than value in the handset itself. A victim recently revealed how they were caught out by crafty crooks who went on to spend hundreds. Tech companies have developed a number of tools to help prevent such incidents. Google has a few for Android users which detect the motion associated with a physical snatch. When a snatch is detected your phone will lock so thieves can't go through all your banking apps and more. Samsung, which uses Android on its phones, alerted more than 40million Samsung Account holders of its anti-theft features. The firm says these features will now also be available to even more devices soon, having started with the launch of the Galaxy S25 series in February. Among Samsung's own added efforts is Theft Protection, a multi-layered suite of features developed to safeguard personal data, even in high-risk situations such as robbery. Google reveals clever trick to prevent thieves from emptying your accounts on the Android 15 "Samsung is deeply committed to working closely with the Home Office on the issue of mobile phone theft and related crimes and we're in constant collaboration with our partners across the industry, to look at new and existing solutions to help combat this complex issue and ultimately help improve the safety of mobile phone users," said Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience (MX) VP of Product and Marketing, UK&I at Samsung. "Our recent One UI 7 update built further on existing protections with new anti-theft features such as identity check, biometric authentication and security delay, all featured in our latest Galaxy S25 series. "These features have now also been rolled out into a range of models across our devices and further updates will follow. "We must do everything we can to ensure the safety and security of our customers when they are using their mobile devices and we will continue to work hard to ensure our customers are aware of the wide range of security features available to them." How to turn on Theft Detection Lock To turn on Theft Detection Lock on a Samsung phone, follow these steps: Go to Settings Select Security and privacy Tap Lost device protection Go to Theft protection Switch the Theft detection option on
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Apple and Google clash with police and MPs over phone thefts
Senior figures at Apple and Google have clashed with the police over its recommendations for how best to deal with phone theft in the UK. The Met's James Conway told the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee - which is considering the question - that two-thirds of thefts in London now relate to mobile phones. With up to 70% of knife crime linked to robbery, he told MPs that meant phone theft was "significantly driving parts of our violence problem". The Met wants phone companies to use the unique identifying number - known as an IMEI - that each device has to block any that are reported as stolen. But Apple and Google - who dominate the market - raised concerns about the idea. "Focusing on IMEI blocking might miss some of the problems," Apple's head of law enforcement requests, Gary Davis, told the committee. "We worry that there is a vector for fraud... we are concerned about a world where it would be a person who claims to be the owner who's asking." Stolen devices are blocked from being used in the UK by phone networks by using its IMEI, but this is not the case globally. This means a stolen phone can still be used in some other countries if a criminal is able to bypass the device's security. Thieves snatched his phone in London - it was in China a month later Met Police blitz to fight phone-snatching 'scourge' But Mr Davis said he was concerned that phone owners already face "extensive fraud attempts", which he estimated at more than a thousand people trying to access devices each month. "They do it for malicious purposes, they do it to maybe blackmail you," he said. "I would like to think in an area such as this our expertise built up over time in relation to attack vectors would mean something." The firms pointed out they have implemented several new safety features in the past 12 months to help combat phone theft. Apple has introduced Stolen Device Protection while Android - which is owned by Google - has brought in Theft Detection Lock. Police officers said they were looking for action from phone providers to help prevent further thefts. The Met's chief technology officer Darren Scates said 75% of phones which were stolen are moved abroad, with 28% ending up in either China or Hong Kong. "We're asking the cloud providers specifically to prevent a lost or stolen device from connecting to their cloud services," he said. "This doesn't even need to involve the police." He said they had been asking for this since October 2023, but had not yet been able to convince the firms to take action. Some MPs accused the two tech firms of lacking the will to take action. "You could tomorrow stop phones that are on the IMEI blacklist connecting back to your services if you so wished, both of you, and you won't do it," Lib Dem MP Martin Wrigley said. "I'm not saying that we won't do it," Google software engineering manager Simon Wingrove replied, adding the issue needed an industry-wide approach. He said the global database of IMEI numbers is built, maintained, populated, read and used by network carriers. "If we want to change that so that it becomes a database that is used by other actors to do other things to devices to block them in other ways, that is an industry-wide discussion that is not in my power as an engineer at Google," he said. "I think we need to decide as industry that is a safe and sensible thing to do." He pointed to Android's factory reset protection as an area it was continuing to work on to improve security and make it harder for thieves to reset stolen devices. "The most recent changes that we've announced we made in the most recent version of Android," he said. "We're really hopeful that we will see a significant impact - we haven't stopped investing in that." But one of the main threads of the day was a clash between MPs and Mr Davis over the market for second-hand parts. "I worry if we focus on IMEI blocking only you are going to miss the market for parts," he told the committee, to frustrations from those in attendance. "It's clear from the mood of the committee that we don't feel that either Google or Apple have a road plan to effective phone protection which does not involve IMEIs," Labour MP Chi Onwurah said. Apple is concerned that when devices are stolen, rather than being reused elsewhere they are instead being chopped up into component parts - like screens, processors and batteries - which can then be sold on for repairs. "Our best protection is Activation Lock," he said. "I understand you will take the view that it obviously mustn't be working because there are still devices being stolen. But that is the best protection." Activation Lock is a feature which links certain iPhone or iPad components to a person's Apple ID - meaning a person must use their password to allow these parts of their device to be used in repairs. The feature was well-received when it was announced in September as a way to deal with thieves. But the committee wanted to focus on blocking the IMEI of a stolen phone being used elsewhere. "It feels to a lot of people that you're dragging your feet," Conservative MP Kit Malthouse said. But Mr Davis said he felt Activation Lock was "a major step" in disrupting the second-hand market. "It could well be that IMEI blocking is a natural next step," he said. "However I would want to make sure that as part of all of that the Met police continues to do traditional policing, which means sending requests to us for stolen devices, and Apple responding to those requests. "We're not seeing that, and I think it's very important." Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wisconsin is seeing among its worst flu seasons of the past decade. Here's why
Wisconsin is continuing to see one of its worst flu season of the last decade, with a second pediatric death from influenza reported earlier this month. As of Feb. 8, every region of the state was experiencing "very high" levels of influenza activity, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. So far this flu season, nearly 3,800 people in Wisconsin have been hospitalized from the flu, compared to just over 2,100 during the same period last year, according to a DHS report released Friday. In the last week alone, the state logged a record 895 flu hospitalizations, a DHS spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel. Wisconsin's particularly acute flu season follows a nationwide trend, as flu cases in the U.S. hit a 15-year high last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. Lagging vaccination rates, more severe strains of the virus and holiday travel are all to blame for the record spread, experts say. "We're right in the midst of it. There's no glimmer at this point whatsoever that it's starting to go down," said Dr. James Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Global Health Institute. Here's what to know about influenza in Wisconsin, including how and where you can get vaccinated. Though experts say it's hard to pin down a precise reason why this flu season has been particularly bad, there are a few contributing factors: less people are getting flu shots, an especially severe strain of the flu is circulating this year, and people who didn't get the flu during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting it now. The past month has been especially severe for flu spread in Wisconsin and nationwide. Between Feb. 3 to 9, the UW Health system saw 55 flu hospitalizations — its highest weekly total in three years, a UW Health spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel. "That combination of low vaccination rates, low amount of carryover immunity from previous seasons, and then record holiday travel was sort of the perfect storm," Conway said. Nationwide, the H1N1 and H3N2 strains of Influenza A were the dominant viruses reported last week, according to the CDC. Both viruses have caused more severe flu seasons in the past, with H1N1 leading to a flu pandemic in 2009. In terms of vaccination, just 33% of Wisconsin residents have received a flu shot so far this season, according to DHS data. Among children under 4 years old, a little over 32% have received a flu vaccine, compared to nearly 50% in the 2020-21 flu season, the data show. With a late start to the flu season this year, Conway said there's still "plenty to be gained" for people who get vaccinated in coming weeks. This year's version of the flu vaccine is well-suited to fight off H1N1 influenza and Influenza B, the latter of which will likely circulate from late March to April, he said. More children in Wisconsin are needing hospitalization from the flu this year, though not many of these cases have led to serious complications, according to Dr. Michael Meyer, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Wisconsin. "There are more children in the hospital who are here with influenza that need additional medical help than what you find just out in the community," Meyer said. "But when it comes to actual severe disease, where they would need to be in the intensive care unit, that number is about normal for us." In the week ending on Feb. 8, more than 17% of children under 4 years old who visited emergency departments in Wisconsin were diagnosed with the flu, up from 1% in early December, according to statewide data published by DHS. At Children's Wisconsin, about 25 kids were hospitalized with influenza last week, compared to 13 at the same time last year, a hospital spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel. In mid-January, the state reported a child had died from the flu for the first time this flu season, followed by a second pediatric death during the week ending in Feb. 1. While the first child who died in Wisconsin had underlying medical issues that could have contributed to flu complications, the second did not, DHS Respiratory Disease Epidemiologist Tom Haupt told the Journal Sentinel in an email. Several pediatric patients in Wisconsin have also developed Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy, a rare complication of influenza that can cause severe brain inflammation, he said. With winter being a peak illness time for children, Meyer said he recommends families keep up strong hygiene practices, especially regular handwashing, and get vaccinated. "If I had a crystal ball, I'd anticipate that we probably will still see a high amount of infections for the next couple of weeks, and then it'll start to tail off from there," he added. Milwaukee, like the rest of the state, is seeing high influenza activity and a jump in hospitalizations from the flu. So far this flu season, Milwaukee has logged 428 hospitalizations associated with the flu, compared to 320 at the same time last year, according to Lindsey Page, infectious disease program director at the Milwaukee Health Department. "We're seeing hospitalizations across all age groups," Page said. The flu vaccination rate in Milwaukee also falls below the state level, with only about 20% of the city's residents receiving at least one flu shot this year. That's down from 24% and 22% during the past two flu seasons in Milwaukee. "It's certainly not too late to get the flu vaccine," Page added. "There's a potential for this to continue for at least another month or two." More: Flu cases are high in Wisconsin. What's the difference between flu A and flu B? You can get flu shots through your health care provider or at a local pharmacy. Flu vaccines are free through almost every health insurance plan, and locates pharmacies near you that are offering vaccines. Wisconsin residents can also dial 211 or 877-947-2211 for help scheduling a vaccine appointment. For uninsured children and adults, Wisconsin's Vaccines for Adults and Vaccines for Children programs offer free flu and COVID-19 shots statewide. You can use the DHS's online locator to find a free adult vaccination clinic near you or a free child vaccination clinic. The Milwaukee Health Department also has three, walk-in immunization clinics across the city, where anyone older than 6 months, regardless of insurance status, can get free flu vaccines. Find clinic locations and hours here. To protect against respiratory viruses, DHS recommends: Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Avoiding touching the nose, eyes and mouth. Staying home and away from others when feeling sick. Avoiding being around others who are sick. Covering the nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing and encouraging children to do the same. Wearing a high-quality mask around others. Sarah Volpenhein contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why is the flu so bad in Wisconsin this year?
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Influenza cases spike in Wisconsin as local health experts report lower vaccination rates
WISCONSIN (WFRV) – Wisconsin is among several states experiencing high to very high levels of influenza activity. 'I think this is measuring up to be one of the worst flu seasons we have had in 15 years,' said James Conway, medical director of the UW Health Immunization Program. Data shows bone-chilling negative temperatures across northeast Wisconsin; How cold was it in your area: Different strains of the virus circulate at different times of the year. However, the current Influenza A season is being called the most intense in years, leading to hospitalizations and deaths. 'A lot of people [are] getting hospitalized, most of the people getting hospitalized [are] including kids or people that have not been vaccinated, and we've had quite a few deaths in children already,' Conway said. 'I think the CDC report is up to almost 70 kids. This is not necessarily something that just affects people with underlying medical conditions.' Health experts anticipated intense flu seasons and continue to recommend that people get vaccinated, stay home when sick, and practice good hygiene. 'You almost feel like you're adopting a little bit of OCD in how often you may think about washing your hands, but it's a survival measure at this time of the year,' Conway added. As the respiratory illness spreads across the country, Conway expressed concern about low vaccination rates. 2025 Sturgeon Season update: Lowest harvest reported on Lake Winnebago 'Influenza immunization rates here in Wisconsin are significantly lower than they usually are,' he said. 'Only about 33% of Wisconsin residents at this point have gotten a flu vaccine, which is down quite a bit.' Flu vaccines are still available at pharmacies, urgent care centers, and some doctors' offices. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
