Dutch Police DoS Stolen Cell Phones With SMS

[Khoder bin Hakkin]

Dangerous precedent, eh?



http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171836.html

Dutch Police 'Bombard' Stolen Cell Phones With SMS

  By Andrew Rosenbaum, Special to Newsbytes
  AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
  05 Nov 2001, 9:30 AM CST


  The Amsterdam police have been using short messaging system
  (SMS) missives to block the use of stolen cell phones, and while the
  campaign has been successful, mobile providers are concerned
  about the cost and bandwidth strain of the campaign.

  About four months ago, the Amsterdam police began cooperating with the
national
  telecommunications provider, KPN Telekom. When stolen phones are
reported, the
  police asked KPN to use for the phone to locate the telephone number.
Then, every
  three to five minutes, the police sent SMS messages to the telephone
saying,
  "Warning, this is a stolen telephone, using it is against the law 
stealing it is a
  felony."

  The police send the repeated messages
  to an average of five phones every day.
  And, according to a spokesman for the
  law enforcement agency, the tactic is
  working. After conducting a three-month
  experiment with the SMS messaging,
  police found that illicit telephone theft
  declined by more than half compared to
  the average theft for the period.

  "When the stolen phone is bombarded
  with tough SMS announcements, it's not
  such a nice thing to have," says Ellie
  Florax, a spokeswoman for the
  Amsterdam Police.

  Pleased with these results, the
  Amsterdam police want to continue the program, but KPN is hesitating,
according to
  KPN spokeswoman, Caroline Ubachs. "There are some financial and legal
issues that
  have to be resolved," Ubachs says.

  First, the spokeswoman explains, KPN has to dedicate a certain amount
of staff,
  computer time and bandwidth to both locating the phone numbers of
these phones,
  and providing them to the police. "That costs a considerable amount,"
says Ubachs,
  who declined to say how much.

  KPN wants all the other mobile phone service providers to participate
in the
  campaign as well. But those that the police have approached so far say
they do not
  have the technology to locate phone numbers based on cell phone IDs.
The Ministry
  of Justice now is working with the other providers to help them gear
up for the
  move.

  Then there is an unresolved legal issue: it isn't clear, under Dutch
law, whether
  police should be obliged to obtain warrants for these SMS
"bombardments." Some
  Dutch civil libertarians suggest the campaign might be illegal under
data protection
  laws.

  "It is almost certain that this would be the case in many countries,"
says Ubachs.

  Police spokesperson Florax insists that this is "a technicality which
can easily be
  solved," but KPN wants lawyers to study the issue before it decides to
continue the
  campaign.

  "With this strategy," says Florax, "we believe we can practically
eliminate cell phone
  theft in this city."

  Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com