Ministry strengthens mobile-phone security

The government will mandate that mobile-phone operators allocate unique identification codes to the handsets of their new subscribers starting next month, to counter against mobile-phone fraud stemming from stolen and cloned phones.

On every new phone sold from March, the country`s three mobile carriers - SK Telecom Co., KT Freetel Co. and LG Telecom Ltd. - will be required install a unique identification code atop the existing electronic serial numbers on handsets, providing a unique combination to serve as a phone`s "fingerprint."

Under the system, mobile users will not be able to access telephone networks without a matching combination.

For current mobile-phone users, the government will introduce a fraud management system, which tracks down stolen or cloned phones through location-based information and search for networks that see the same phone in several places at the same time.

The Ministry of Information and Communication hopes 95 percent of all mobile-phone users will be under the new encryption system by 2007.

"The government and industry has been working together to develop a better solution against mobile-phone fraud for the past couple of years. Mobile-phone operators will now be required to redesign their customer contracts to cover the strengthen security measures," said Kim Dong-soo, director-general of the ministry`s information and communication promotion bureau.

In a country where the wireless penetration rate reaches 75 percent, mobile fraud is increasingly becoming a challenge for law enforcement.

The electronic serial numbers on mobile phones have become vulnerable targets for theft, with "phone-cloners" replicating the code on an copied telephone and enabling the users to make telephone calls which are then billed to the original subscriber.

More than 2,000 phone-cloning cases were reported to authorities during the Jan.-July period last year, according to the Communication Ministry.

Last year, former employees at Samsung SDI Co., the world`s largest plasma-panel maker, accused the company`s management of tracking down their personal information through cloned mobile phones.

Under Korea`s telecommunication law, those who produced cloned phones face a maximum of three years in prison or 20 million won fine.

(thkim@heraldm.com)



By Kim Tong-hyung