High-tech thieves in Kenya have foiled a service-blocking scheme called Equipment Identification Register (EIR), which cost untold millions to implement. EIR ostensibly lets the nation’s telcos quickly blacklist the numbers of stolen phones, preventing their new “owners” from making calls. But the thieves-cum-hackers have learned how to reprogram a handset’s ID number, and reactivation takes less than 10 minutes. If you’ve swiped a phone yourself, they’ll charge as little as $6.50 to get it working again. About 5,000 mobile phones are stolen in Kenya each month — an enormous figure, considering the relatively small number of users. A potential goldmine for LoJack?
Read [via AllAfrica.com]
