RE: Security Concerns with Emergency uses of Geo Location

On Fri, 13 Jul 2001 ned.freed@mrochek.com wrote:

>
> > Ask anyone who is waiting for the emergency operator's phone
> > to ring how much he cares about authentication.
>
> Actually, he may care a lot. Examples abound where exposure of information
> about emergency situations is a very serious concern in its own right.

I'd think that authentication was a significant issue for false alarms
etc. While the cost of responding to a false 911 call in a city may be a
few thousand dollars absorbed into general expenses, the cost of
responding to a false EPIRB at sea might be millions, while backcountry
searches are not inexpensive either.
(http://www.epirb.de seems good)

Landline 911 calls are authenticated by caller ID. Mobile calls too, I
imagine.

(are we all North American ? I know it's 999 in the UK and something else
in a new European standard...)

Andrew
Received on Sat Jul 14 08:19:26 2001