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ITU thought bubble ponders mass mobe-tracking to kill fake IT

Gabfest to consider how to spot and track counterfeit kit before it crocks networks

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will next week meet to consider the issue of “counterfeit and substandard ICT products” and what can be done about them, but some of the proposals on the table look more than a little worrying.

Notice of the meeting was posted in late September, when the ITU announced next week's gabfest would include “A focus of the event will be to examine the role of ICT innovations such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Identity Management and the Internet of Things in tracing counterfeit goods and identifying their origins.”

That sounds more than a little worrying to this Reg hack, as the technologies mentioned hinted at a desire to identify and track devices that touch a network.

We approached the ITU for further explanation of its desires, but were rebuffed because so many of its people were tied up with its plenipotentiary in South Korea.

But some evidence of what the meeting will discuss is starting to emerge, in the form of submissions to the meeting from nations that will participate.

The Ukraine's submission [PDF] points out that the nation records the International Mobile Equipment Identity number (IMEI) of every mobile phone imported to the nation by registered importers. Before punters buy a device, they can check to make sure it is on a government-controlled white list. There's also a grey list for devices that need verification and a black list for devices that are denied service by the nation's mobile carriers.

“This type of system architecture has proved to be very effective in ensuring that mobile devices are imported in accordance with national regulations in the Ukraine and should be considered for application to combating the spread of counterfeit and substandard ICT equipment,” the submission says.

Uganda's document [PDF] tells a similar tale of IEMI whitelisting, which it says became necessary after Kenya dumped all counterfeits from its mobile phone networks. A heap of counterfeit phones turned up in Uganda not long afterwards, necessitating the new regime.

China's contribution [PDF] explains how the nation's food industry now tracks milk production with RFIDs on every cow and plans a regime whereby “... every can of milk power … can be tracked backward to its manufacture farm and forward to its distribution market.” The implication is that if this can be done for milk, why not ICT products?

The ITU thinks a response to counterfeit kit is justified because such devices are often sufficiently shoddy that they “... raise the risk of network disruptions and interoperability challenges that result in poor quality of service, with potentially dire consequences in emergency situations. They also pose major risks to consumers’ health and safety and that of our environment, especially related to the disposal of e-waste from such products.”

Valid points, all, as The Reg knows having recently experienced some dire counterfeit phones (watch this space for details).

But as has been demonstrated time and again around the world, once governments give themselves the power to surveil devices, uses are found for such powers that go well beyond their original purpose. That the ITU has thrown big data and the internet of things into the mix increases the possibility that a global proposal will offer possibilities for data gathering and analysis on a very wide scale.

The Reg will therefore keep a close eye on next week's conference. ®

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