Local Police Want Right to Jam Wireless Signals
Bipin Gautam
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR2009013101548_pf.html>
"As President Obama's motorcade rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue on
Inauguration Day, federal authorities deployed a closely held law
enforcement tool: equipment that can jam cellphones and other wireless
devices to foil remote-controlled bombs, sources said.
It is an increasingly common technology, with federal agencies
expanding its use as state and local agencies are pushing for
permission to do the same. Police and others say it could stop
terrorists from coordinating during an attack, prevent suspects from
erasing evidence on wireless devices, simplify arrests and keep
inmates from using contraband phones.
But jamming remains strictly illegal for state and local agencies.
Federal officials barely acknowledge that they use it inside the
United States, and the few federal agencies that can jam signals
usually must seek a legal waiver first.
The quest to expand the technology has invigorated a debate about how
widely jamming should be allowed and whether its value as a common
crime-fighting strategy outweighs its downsides, including restricting
the constant access to the airwaves that Americans have come to
expect."
...
Bipin Gautam
Laxman. They were piloting a way to deal with this current electricity
problem (in kalimati / kuleshwor area) with a device that could
regulate load in a tole during the peak time evenly across houses so
that everyone could have electricity in their home 24 / 7 without
cutoff but less amperes evenly distributed across homes.
read more : http://technosales.com.np/Loadsheading.html
They control this electronics with radio wave (VHF, as they said) with
a receiver in the receiving end, with MCB switching to regulate the
load at peak hours.
They said each device installed in homes can be identified and an uniq
signal be send to regulate / cut-off the electricity at any specific
home.
If what they clam is true, and if their pilot is a success, Nepalese
authorities could really remotely turn off your electricity!
If its not really "very secure by design" or i bet, otherwise anyways
considering its potential and time one could invest to acquire the
capability.......... "someone else" in Nepal except the feds might
also have the access to cut down electricity in any home reverse
engineering the device.......
I'll keep you updated on this issue. :) Also, as long as only one
(security)/intelligence agency in Nepal have access to any such power,
but definitely with proper audit trails and logging of the incident in
both ends, it would be awesome from a security standpoint!
What say ? ;)
regards,
-bipin