IMEI Number Tracking – Best way to track your stolen phone

Why is mobile security so important?

Mobile security has become very important in the field of mobile computing and information technology. In the present era, an individual uses his/her mobile phone to complete 65% of his/her daily tasks, including even the smallest of those tasks. A mobile phone can be used for online shopping, surfing the web, making hotel reservations, planning a trip and a lot more that will require the user’s personal and confidential information, especially their bank account details. Seeing your phone get hacked right in front of you would be the worst thing ever. The two most important things in a mobile phone are data and identity. Smartphones are used a lot for data management, and they may contain sensitive information like credit card/ debit card numbers, authentication credentials, private information and passwords, activity logs, browser history etc. The content of a smartphone is highly customisable and this means that if a person acquires data from your phone, he can easily associate it with the user which thereby puts the user at risk. Black hat hackers are usually a bunch of people who develop a virus that can freeze your phone on entering it. These viruses are installed in clickbait websites or links, for which most of the people fall for. There are a lot of preventions and precautions against such viruses that can be installed in a device. Security protocols and user-friendly firewalls are being developed by engineers so that they can be applied to smartphones to enhance protection. Maintaining an encrypted Secured Digital Card (SD Card) makes it difficult for the hacker to retrieve details from a mobile phone. Getting your phone hacked is better compared to it being stolen by someone else without your notice. Smartphones are one of the most preferred targets of attacks. According to recent statistics, it is found out that 70 million phones are lost each year across the globe and only 7% of these phones are recovered!

What should you do if your phone gets stolen?

Let us assume that you have lost your phone! What will you do to find it at the earliest? Track your phone using a phone tracker app? Track it using the GPS location? File a police complaint? You will surely not find your phone as soon as possible if you try to do any of these. The best way to track your lost phone is by using the IMEI number. The International Mobile Equipment Identity number is a unique number that is present at the back of every Android/iOS phone. Every device that can connect to a cellular network will have a unique IMEI number. The fastest way to gain access to your IMEI number is by entering *#06# in the keypad of your phone. Once you get this special 15-digit number, you can enter it in any of the applications like ‘IMEI Tracker’, ‘Anti-Theft App’ & ‘IMEI Tracker All Phone Location’ that are available in Play store/Appstore. As soon as you enter the number, you will get to know the exact location of your phone. Get acquainted with your IMEI number as early as possible to be on the safer side. It is that simple! This method of tracking your lost phone has a lot of advantages compared to the other methods:

1. Your IMEI number can never be manipulated by the person who has stolen it.

2. It is a unique number and hence will show you the exact location of your lost phone once you start tracking it.

3. The number will be valid even if your SIM card is no longer inside your device.

4. Even if your phone is switched off after it has been stolen, it can be tracked using the IMEI number. This can also be done by approaching your service provider and blocking your phone number for a few days.

Conclusion

The IMEI number of a device can be changed in some cases. This is easily possible only if your phone is rooted. Rooting is a process by which the user of an Android device gains access, also called the root access, to the Android subsystems and confidential files of the phone which play a major role in running the phone. Android uses a Linux Kernel, so it makes it easier to root without giving various details of the operating system. Linux is an open-sourced operating system and the restrictions that a user faces while using other operating systems is slightly more when compared to Linux. The process of rooting may or may not be successful every time. In fact, changing the IMEI number is illegal in some parts of the world and it may be offensive. The phones that were manufactured in the early 20th century need not have an IMEI number, whereas the phones that are being manufactured now must compulsorily produce an IMEI number for every device. With the drastic growth in technology, we can track and protect the contents of our phone in any dangerous situation. Without a phone, it is not easy to survive! Tracking your phone using the IMEI number is the best solution, and it is surely one of the quickest methods to get to know the precise location of your stolen phone. While tracking and getting back your phone is not always successful, being careful about your assets is very essential. You must instil a sense of responsibility to make sure that you keep your belongings safely. Stay safe, stay healthy!

THEJAS SHEKHAR (SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING)

R19ME145@me.reva.edu.in

REVA UNIVERSITY