India Shuts Down Mobile SMS For 'Security'

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 16, 2002 @02:25AM from the permissionism dept.

Hemant writes: "On Friday, March 15th, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in India surprised the cell-phone users by asking the mobile operators to block the highly popular short message service (SMS) for security reasons! The dorks at IB think that underworld dons (mafia and terrorists) within and outside the country were using SMS facilities to coordinate with anti-social elements to spark communal tension across the country. The officials of IB, police and other intelligence agencies believe that SMS facilities should be withdrawn till they can tap a technology to monitor messages. It is easy for the police to 'monitor' a mobile phone, but almost impossible to check SMS. So if you from mafia, you can do email, voice chat, streaming video, anything you want but for sending out vanilla 160 character ASCII text messages!"

1 of 8 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

No Joke by Anonymous Coward · 2002-03-18 02:42 · Score: 1, Interesting

Contrary to popular belief, the recent rioting wasn't related to the usual illiterate, masses. Over 700 people were murdered in Gujarat, India and the ringleaders were often guided to minority community homes and shops by instant messages on their mobiles. The Government HAS to do something, especially since the State Government in Gujarat is viewed by most as at least uncaring if not complicit.

What is MOBILE number? What is your style number?