Slashdot Mirror
Pakistanis Must Provide Fingerprints Or Give Up Cellphone
schwit1 sends this report from the Washington Post: Cellphones didn't just arrive in Pakistan. But someone could be fooled into thinking otherwise, considering the tens of millions of Pakistanis pouring into mobile phone stores these days. In one of the world's largest — and fastest — efforts to collect biometric information, Pakistan has ordered cellphone users to verify their identities through fingerprints for a national database being compiled to curb terrorism. If they don't, their service will be shut off, an unthinkable option for many after a dozen years of explosive growth in cellphone usage here.
Prompted by concerns about a proliferation of illegal and untraceable SIM cards, the directive is the most visible step so far in Pakistan's efforts to restore law and order after Taliban militants killed 150 students and teachers at a school in December. Officials said the six terrorists who stormed the school in Peshawar were using cellphones registered to one woman who had no obvious connection to the attackers.
Prompted by concerns about a proliferation of illegal and untraceable SIM cards, the directive is the most visible step so far in Pakistan's efforts to restore law and order after Taliban militants killed 150 students and teachers at a school in December. Officials said the six terrorists who stormed the school in Peshawar were using cellphones registered to one woman who had no obvious connection to the attackers.
Which is exactly the point in Pakistan.
.... solution is more registration?
Surely they'll find it very difficult to get an unregistered SIM card.
No, but they'll find it difficult to get unregistered cards to work, at least once the networks start blocking all cards that are not registered.
The counter to that is to steal registered cards. The counter to that is to report the cards as stolen. Counter: kill the card-owners, so they can't report the cards. Counter: police de-registers cards belonging to dead people. Counter: kidnap/disappear the card-owners. Only works until the authorities catch on in each individual case. Mitigation: keep kill/stealing. That's what terrorists do anyway, so no problem there. Problem: you're now switching numbers often. Gonna be difficult to keep your address book up-to-date.
'Cause stealing someone else's cell phone and using it would be totally Inconceivable!
/ I don't think that word means what you think it means.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
Gonna be difficult to keep your address book up-to-date.
that's not a problem if you only need a one-time (or limited) campaign. or a IED remote trigger device for example. or you have a dead-drop location (online or otherwise) with up-to-date numbers. or a whole number of other scenarios that are probably and have been standard practice *anyway* for decades.
tell me... how come in a simple public discussion slashdot readers can come up with simple practical scenarios why mass-surveillance "solutions" like this will be completely ineffective, yet the people considering (or actually) deploying them cannot? and: why can the pakistani government not see that this knee-jerk response will have the terrorists celebrating the success of bringing awareness of their campaign to every single mobile phone user across pakistan in a very personal way.
Its worth noting this enforcement is largely designed to target terrorist attacks against the Pakistani government. The longterm solution to Pakistans terrorism problems is largely structural and political. Increased education funding, crackdowns on government corruption, increased employment, and most of all a more vocal and political opposition to the United States drone war. Nawaz Sharif is kept in power by coup and crackdown, not free election, while the united states basically shovels money into his political fund. The fingerprint system is, conveniently, also an excellent means by which to deter active protests and dissent.
people are terrorists due to a combination of desparation, isolation, and doctrine. Once a person becomes determined with nothing to lose, then theyre not easily dissuaded from terrorist acts. Having your village razed by foreign aircraft you could never see is one thing, but for your government to turn a blind eye just adds insult to injury and paves the way for neurotic warlords and clerics to fill the void.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Why not use the same logic with guns?
If a person who asks for a gun license and enters 'armed robbery' as reason for obtaing one, just refuse it.
Presto, no crime anymore.
Body found, no fingers and cell phone missing.
'Cause stealing someone else's cell phone and using it would be totally Inconceivable! / I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Vizzini to girlfriend: "You're Pregnant? Inconceivable!
Girlfriend: I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.