Self-Destructing Mobile Phones

Sharon Gaudin reports that IBM is developing smart phones that self-destruct for the U.S. military. The goal is to keep enemies of the nation from extracting secrets from captured mobile phones. Of course, if these enemies obtain the self-destruct code the loss would be immense....

In a similar vein, Martyn Williams tells of legislative bill being proposed in California which would require that smartphones and tablet PCs sold in the state be equipped with a digital "kill-switch" that would render the devices useless if stolen. The impetus for this is that half of the robberies in San Francisco involve the theft of these devices.

-DD