Intelligence: SIMs Gone Wild

#INTELLIGENCE: SIMs Gone Wild

September 9, 2012: For the last five years Pakistan has tried, without success, to block the use of anonymous cell phones. Recently the government had to back off on threats to block calls made by someone who bought a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) for their cell phone using fake ID. The government has not been able to come up with a foolproof system that will prevent criminals and terrorists from buying SIM cards that cannot be traced back to the purchaser. Two years ago Pakistan shut down cell phones owned by anonymous users. This turned out to be a huge number; eleven percent of 88 million SIM cards in use at the time. That caused such a public uproar that the government had to back off. The year before that, this effort was stymied because, in the tribal territories, dealers were not obeying new rules that required them to get positive ID from cell phones buyers. Fou...

Full article: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/2012090...