SMS Warnings for Impending Disasters
There’s an interesting article over at SpyBlog discussing the suggestion posed in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster for SMS based early warning systems.
I hadn’t given this one much thought until I picked up on this article. I guess they make a valid point when they ask would you act on an unauthenticated text message telling you to evacuate your home or business? After all, we get so many SPAM messages these days, it would be difficult to differentiate. There are other dangers posed by such a system - it would be difficult for the operator of such a system to identify relevant handsets within the impending disaster area. The option posed by one operator involved publishing personal details on the web. One of the fallouts of these tragedies is the human scavenging that goes on - a list of details of potential victims who will probably not be returning home provides a feast for burglars. Then there’s the ready made mailing list for SPAMmers and phishers.
All in all, it sounds like one of those nice sounding ideas that hasn’t been thought through properly.
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