Discuss the purpose of kill switches and describe how they function.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Due to the rising number of violent thefts of smartphones in major U.S. cities, kill switches-software that enables owners to render stolen devices inoperable-have been getting increased attention. In fact, Michigan and California recently passed laws requiring that all smartphones sold in those states include a kill switch.?Some features of kill switches are included in many device tracking apps. For example, the Android Device Manager displays the current location of a selected device after a user logs on to his or her account. It also has the ability to ring the device, lock the device and display a message on the lock screen, or erase the device. Some stand-alone kill switches go one step further and actually destroy the device. For example, some encrypted hard drives automatically delete the encryption key after a specific number of unsuccessful password entry attempts, which leaves the device inaccessible. Kill switches are typically activated by the customer or by the tracking company upon customer request when the device is determined to be lost or stolen. Users of some cloud services can also use those services to remotely wipe their mobile devices when needed.