The UK’s Home Office, Design Council and the Technology Strategy Board have released three new prototype security systems for the Mobile Phone Security Challenge - an initiative to develop new security technology to protect phones from “thieves and fraudsters,” according to designweek.co.uk.
The prototypes developed for the Challenge focus on three main areas: making mobile phones harder to steal, increasing the security of data stored on phones; and making mobile payment transactions safer.
The prototypes were developed by teams of designers and technology experts on a budget of £400,000, provided by the aforementioned partners.
First of the prototypes is the Touch Safe, developed by Suffolk- based design consultancy Minima and consumer technology company Proxama. The Touch Safe comes with an NFC-enabled key card that users pass by the phone in order to unlock its mobile payment function.
Next is the Tie system, developed by Hampshire-based consultancy Rodd and technology company TTP. This prototype combines two encryption systems to secure both the phone itself from theft and the data stored on the phone. The dual encryption system allows the phone to be locked to one or more SIM cards, and is applied with a user controlled PIN number.
Finally, there’s the i-migo prototype, developed by design consultancy PDD and technology company DTC. The i-migo is a Bluetooth device that links up with the phone to back up data stored on it. i-migo also has the most promising anti-theft feature. When a user’s phone is taken more than 10 meters away from i-migo, the phone automatically shuts down and alarms are activated on both the phone and the i-migo.
The prototypes will be displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 15-18.
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