Stephen’s World

This worries me…

Right we’ve all heard about terrorists using cell phones to detonate bombs, now the classic response to this by the authorities is to block the cellular networks to stop these working.. Now in principle this seems like a good plan, but I have a feeling this will backfire in a major twist.

So I read this piece about how the Thai government got such a bee in their bonnet about the cell phones being used to trigger bombs, that they started to block the networks. In the piece it even mentions that the Thai government claim this as a victory. But the point of the story is in the face of the blocking of the cell networks the bombers have switched to using other radio devices to trigger bombs.

In this case the bombers have switched to using the keyfobs for cars. Don’t about you but this worries me more than them using a cell phone. Granted they need to be closer to the device to trigger it, but there is no way to trace the signal, nor determine who did it after all are you going to go after everyone with their hands in their pockets. The keyfob is small enough to hide or dispose of without anyone noticing so the only way you’d id the bomber is if he/she was known to you.

Mind you why bother with radio detonation, all you need is the universal 555 timer and I bet you could make a suitable timing device..