Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: S100 who wrote (3274)	8/2/2001 3:22:01 PM
From: S100	Respond to of 12247

SMS stuff Phone lines of the firefighters in all regions of Slovakia were severely overloaded for two days as tens of thousands calls were made to it. The cause was a hoax SMS spreading in the network of one of the GSM operators stating that it is possible to make free calls using this number. The GSM operator itself also had minor problems in some areas. Despite coverage in main news the calls continued also the next day. Many people apparently did not recognize that the number is an emergency one and blindly called it. Even more people forwarded the message to all friends without thinking of it or trying it. Risk 1: You don't need any mail client executing scripts to spread some piece of info faster than the system is able to handle. A plain old human stupidity fully suffices and in this case endangered human lives. Don't assume that if one is intelligent enough to use services such as SMS, he/she won't respond to this kind of hoax. That particular operator has less than 700 000 customers, the number of calls made was quoted as tens of thousands. Go figure... Risk 2: If the originator was smart enough to use web-to-SMS gateway via some anonymizer, he is practically untraceable (the individual would be facing 8 to 10 years in prison). The intent of the callers and forwarders will be much harder to prove and our justice already is overloaded enough, so they probably don't have to fear much.