Patent ID: 9558372
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method for issuing a command to disable functionality of a target device that is suspected of being lost or stolen, the method being implemented at a computer system that includes one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving information corresponding to a target device that has been reported as being lost or stolen, wherein the received information at least includes a last known location of the target device; based on the received information, selecting one or more candidate systems that are identified as having previously shared a relationship with the target device, wherein which candidate systems are included within the selected one or more candidate systems is determined by: receiving, from at least one of the one or more candidate systems, an identification signal that was sent from the target device to the at least one candidate system; and in response to receiving the identification signal from the at least one candidate system, initiating delivery of an active disable command to the target device, the active disable command being structured to be interpretable by the target device as a mandatory instruction to actively disable at least some functionality of the target device in a manner that persists across subsequent resets of the target device.