“The gods themselves can not fight against stupidity” - Friedrich Schiller, 1801

Want some more stories about the police, IT, security and human stupidity? I have them.

07/23/2014 - 00:10

At ten past twelve, I enthusiastically attack the resonators of the enemy - I play Ingress, returning home. In my absence, my home portal was captured by the enemy (unheard of audacity) and my goal is to restore justice. The gaming device is the ASUS Google Nexus 7 2013 LTE tablet (yes, this is an important detail). However, I fail to realize my plans.

00:10 - 00:13

Two unknown people who came from behind, seized my property - namely, a tablet (and other non-narrative values). Along the way, they cause injuries to me (with their feet) that are incompatible with good mood. Unfortunately, I lose consciousness, and I do not have the opportunity to trace the direction in which the attackers are hiding.
')

00:14 - 00:20

Waking up, I immediately call the police. The patrol arrives, without exaggeration, instantly (no more than one or two minutes). Three minutes later, we set off in search of "hot pursuit." The technology and (finally!) High technologies come into play. Using a policeman’s smartphone, sitting in a patrol car (unknown model, Chinese manufacturer, two SIM cards), I enter Android Device Manager.

00:30 - 00:40

Thanks to the fantastic speeds of GPRS \ EDGE, the page gratefully loaded on the third attempt. And that's what I saw:



Android Device Manager told me amazingly useful information - that the device was not found, its location is unknown and ... That's all. Having written off everything on a slow Internet, I tried again in the district police station, and ...

1:30 - 3:00

And nothing has changed. I could not get any useful information about the latest (or current) location of the tablet. Leaving testimony to the police, I went home.

July 23, 2014 - 08:00 - 18:00

All day I had the opportunity to portray myself as a patient of Dr. House, because magnetic resonance imaging is not done every day!
Having gotten the diagnosis of “slight concussion”, I went to be sad about the lost tablet home. However, the next day I decided to conduct another check ...

July 24, 2014 - 12:00

I decided to check out the Google Maps section, namely the history of locations , and immediately found there a detailed history of the misadventures of my tablet.



Without going into unnecessary details, I will note that the route of the attackers was discovered there, the unlit places where they were hiding from the police patrols and many other interesting things. I, of course, gave all these data to the police. Separately, I would note the high level of training of patrols - they were looking for exactly where the attackers were hiding (!), It is a pity that with a temporary difference of only a few minutes. If the data from the "location history" were available in the Android Device Manager, the chances of catching criminals would increase many times.

Sudden conclusions

It is self-evident that, having gained access to the Android Device Manager, having identified myself as a user of the required Google account with a password, I expect to receive not only the inscription “Sorry! The attacker has already turned off your device ", but at least a link to the history of locations, and in the ideal case - the imposition of this data on one map.

I know that in some cases, the last location of the device is indicated in the Android Device Manager, however:

• in my case this did not happen;
• the help of the service does not describe the pattern, when this information is indicated, and when it is not.

Of course, I sent a review letter to Google about this, it seems to me, the important lack of data synchronization between the two, separately needed and good services. But I hope that the topic will serve someone a hint or guide to action in such situations.

Take care of yourself and your equipment. And let Google make conclusions.