Teledroid Anti-Theft Application for Android Devices

Abstract
Lots of applications are developed to track a Smart Phone, but still it is a major concern.
If ever the phone is lost, user has to manually report to the customer care to block the
IMSI number of the lost phone. This work is reduced by our application. Our Android
Application is deployed with initial registration of user mobile number, alternative mobile
number, and passcode and email id. This application which runs in the background can
be able to track the current location of the device. If the thief changes the SIM card,
immediately SIM details, latitude and longitude of the location are sent to the alternative
phone number of the original user through SMS. We can retrieve the contacts and critical
files from the lost phone. We can retrieve important contacts by SMS and entire contact
list through mail. We can also retrieve the critical files in the lost phone by using file
transfer facility that is available in the application. Website provides location history of
the phone and we can download the requested files.
Keywords: Location tracking, Android Smart Phone, SMS, Email
Cite this paper: Rekha Rao, Sahana B., Sahana V. Prabhu, Shamitha Ammanna,
Chaithra, Teledroid Anti-Theft Application for Android Devices, Advances in Computing,
Vol. 7 No. 2, 2017, pp. 44-47. doi: 10.5923/j.ac.20170702.07.

Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Proposed System
4. Implementation
5. Results
6. Conclusions and Future Scope
1. Introduction

In today's world, cell phones play an important role in everyone's life.

The mobile OS used by modern smart phones include Android, Blackberry,
Symbian which are the world's best OS. There are many differences between
their features and performance. It provides multiple options like voice
and video conversation, GPS tracking system and internet usage. Radio
signals are constantly been broadcasted by cell phones and hence can trace
a lost mobile phone. All cell phones constantly send signals to its nearest
towers hence it is been possible to track lost phone accurately.
Anti-Theft application is a project which helps to track the location of
smart phones. This application usually runs in the background. It consists
of Android Client application which automatically sends SMS to alternate
number when SIM card is changed. Position Tracker works on GPS (Global
Positioning System) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) [1]. When SIM
flipped, the application will fetch latitude and longitude from satellite
and send it as SMS. Owner can send a message to the application in the
predefined format. Application provides the requested services via SMS
or Email.
Teledroid is an Android based software which helps us do some specific
operations on a cell phone which is in a remote location that is accessed
through a different user’s cell phone; operations include retrieving
contacts, retrieving files and tracking phone in case the user loses the
phone. Owner can send a message to the application in the predefined format.
Application provides the requested services via SMS or Email.
Location history of the lost phone and meta data of the requested file
along with the downloading of the required file can be made available
through the website.
2. Background

There are already several applications in the market that offer tracking
systems and anti theft applications to detect non-authorized SIM cards.
Most of these applications provide dedicated solutions using tracking
methods to monitor a mobile device [2].
The application can be installed only on mobile phones with Android
operating system. The existing systems which are available in the market
are not protected by password, so the application can be uninstalled by
the thief. This drawback is overcome by our proposed system in which we
configure our application with a password during the installation of an
application.
3. Proposed System

The proposed system tracks the location of the mobile phone using GPS.
This application can be used even if the mobile is present in the moving
vehicle. It can be installed on the mobile phones with the Google android
operating system. Upon the SIM change by the thief, notification is sent
to the pre-specified mobile number.
System Architecture
The architecture of the “Anti-theft application for Android devices”
is as shown in figure 1. Upon SIM change by the thief, notification is
sent to pre-specified mobile number. Contacts retrieval and deleting of
the files that are stored in lost phone can be obtained by sending
predefined formatted SMS. The critical files in lost phone can be obtained
by using file transfer facility that is available in the application. The
file request must be sent from a smart phone with the GPRS facility enabled
and the application installed in it [3].

4. Implementation
This section describes the modules required for implementing the system which is done
in informal design. Formal design describes the internals of each module. It describes
the logic implemented in that module to perform the desired function.

Our proposed system contains following module:

1. Configuration Module

2. SIM Monitoring Module

3. Information Fetching Module

4. Web Module

Configuration module

This module is used to acquire the current SIM information from the owner. The
application is configured with the password from being uninstalled by untrusted user. In
this module login page is created where owner specify the authorized SIM numbers. The
owner also provides the password to protect predefined formatted SMS, alternate
mobile number, current mobile number that belongs to owner and also the Email ID.

SIM monitoring module

This module is used to continuously monitor the SIM change. The application stores the
owners SIM serial number during the installation process. This SIM serial number is
checked against the current SIM serial number. If the SIM is flipped then SMS
notification is sent to the predefined mobile number that was given during configuration
process. This feature will be continuously running in the background checking for the
SIM change. [4]

Information fetching module

If the SIM is flipped the application sends SMS regarding the details of the new SIM to
the predefined mobile number. If the owner wants to get the information from lost
phone, then the role of the user is to send predefined formatted SMS to the lost android
smart phone having the application installed in it from any alternate mobile. Even
though the SIM is not flipped these predefined formatted SMS can be used to fetch the
information from the lost smart phones. Files from the lost phone can be obtained from
file transfer facility which requires an alternate smart phone with GPRS facility enabled.
[5].

Web module

Web module provides the alternative way to check the requested files; user can
download the files from the web once the request has been placed. It also helps the user
to track the location history of the lost mobile. [6].

6. Conclusions and Future Scope

This paper presents a novel anti–theft application for android based devices. The
application deploys an enterprise security solution that meets user’s immediate and long
term requirements by providing the message and location via website.

On theft detection the application will send a notification SMS to the owner alerting him
with the information about the new SIM inserted by the thief and the location
information without the knowledge of thief. Other information that is stored in the lost
phone can be fetched using SMS or email facilities. Also it is possible for the owner to
delete the secret information that is stored in the lost phone.
It stands different from the existing system as it not only uses GPS and text messaging
features but also the GPRS facility that is available in the smart phone. Thus the
developed application is a unique and efficient application which enhances the existing
mobile tracking application.

The Anti-theft application is implemented on Android, it can be enhanced to enable the

application to work on other platforms. The application will not work if the lost phone
gets switched off. So additional work can be done to switch on the phone after certain
period of time and thus helps in efficient tracking of the lost phone.