Press Release: Recovering lost phone no longer a theory!

Resident contributor Darius Cheung’s tenCube does regional CSI!

Wednesday, 20th February 2008

International criminals now have one more entity to fret over — tenCube. The nascent company’s product, WaveSecure, has cracked a number of cases of theft involving mobile devices around the Asia Pacific region.

Formed three years ago from a core team of four NUS Alumni, the company has expanded to include 18 people in both its Singapore and India offices. WaveSecure, tenCube’s anchor product, is a software product that allows the user to track which SIM card is inserted into one’s phone, remotely locking it down, backing up personal data to a secure server and wiping out sensitive data on the phone.

With a revenue of approx. SGD $0.5M in 2007, tenCube’s customers now counts Singapore Police Force, iDA and a number of high security organization. The launch of the consumer version, which individuals can simply sign up online for, has been extremely well received with more then 30,000 users in 6 months since its launch.

Many users were initially skeptical of it WaveSecure’s ability to aid the users in their quest to retrieve their mobile device or protect private data. However, many real incidents have shown that WaveSecure has delivered results and protecting mobile phones with software product is no longer a theory.

As Lincoln Lynx (username), who left his Nokia E90 in a Singaporean cab, experienced, “Frantic, I tried to call my number only to be cut off soon after. Upon a 2nd trial, I noticed that my handphone was already switched off.” However, he had the prescience to have installed WaveSecure onto his mobile device. Using WaveSecure’s unique patented SIM tracking technology, he managed to procure the phone number of the antagonist. Within twenty minutes, the sheepish perpetrator, faced with either embarrassment or imprisonment, chose the former and returned the phone to Lincoln. As Lincoln later lauds laconically, “Good job WaveSecure!”

Jasper Lim was in Qingdao when he fell prey to the dreaded black hole for phones, aka the cab. He got in a real fluster of worry, but had the presence of mind to get to the nearest computer to access his WaveSecure account. Within minutes he got his hands on the number of the SIM card that used his phone next. As he evinced, “Within 15 minutes of the lost of the handphone in the taxi, this taxi driver had manage to try to sell to a 3rd party for RMB500 being a young lady and she gave us the full account of the sell process.” He proceeded to wipe out all his data on his phone and set the remote lock on in order to prevent the sale. Although he chose not to pursue the case past this point, he praised, “Cheers and keep up with your TEAM’s good work.”

Juxtapose Jasper’s case with the next case whereby the user was willing to pursue justice to the ends of the world, or at least a thousand kilometers away in Bangkok. Ironically, the user happened to be Darius Cheung, CEO of tenCube. In November of 2007, Nokia (a largish mobile device company) invited tenCube to a summit in Bangkok. On the way home, armed with a small cachet of Nokia phones worth thousands of dollars, Darius’ collection disappeared. Apparently it was “lost in transit”. Now being a mobile security company, it would be really bad form to let those who had done this dirty deed off scot free. Easily enough, Darius managed to retrieve the phone numbers of the thieves. Notifying the Thai Police of the crime and the phone numbers was easy too. The team in tenCube was not that sure whether the Thai Police would
react to the tip off though.

However, that worry was unjustified, as within a couple of days, the noble Thai Police force called Darius and brought glad tidings – recovery of the devices. The catch was that Darius had to come down personally to Bangkok to collect the phone. All in all, the entire scenario played at around two and a half months. But as Darius declares, “The Nokia’s were worth 2000 dollars. My trip to Thailand? A couple hundred. But seeing justice done? Priceless.”

Darius Cheung with Inspector Warachut in Bangkok

As the demand for the services of WaveSecure increases, and the presence is made known globally, these ne’er do wells will be seeking greener fields to pasture on. Will mobile device thefts decrease as a result, putting WaveSecure out of business? This question was put to Chong Yixue, tenCube’s User Advocate. In a written reply, he states, “That is indeed a valid concern, which we considered. However, our company is nimble and our team is particularly good at adapting to new scenarios. But the gentle reminder was timely, and hopefully we’ll not become a victim of our own success.”

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