A CELLPHONE is stolen every 45 seconds in Britain. The government says the
cellphone industry isn’t doing enough to make the phones less attractive targets
for thieves. But while some astonishing blunders by the networks and handset
manufacturers make it easy for criminals to resell working phones, the
government must share the blame.
“We repeatedly warned the Home Office about this problem, and the Department
of Trade before them,” says Ross Anderson at Cambridge University. The
Foundation for Information Policy Research, which monitors the impact of
technology on society and which Anderson co-founded, has continually pointed out
to the government…
