Suicide Bomber Killed By Spam

A spam message is responsible for thwarting a terrorist attack. The Herald-Sun is reporting that a Russian suicide bomber, who planned to detonate her explosives in a busy section of Moscow, was killed when her bomb went off unexpectedly. Most suicide bombers have their explosives detonated remotely via text message. This time however, the spam did the job. She was in a Moscow safe house waiting to set off on her mission when her cell phone company sent her a spam text message, detonating the device and killing her instantly. The message wished her a happy new year. No one else was hurt. Mobile spam is a growing concern as spammers begin to rely less on traditional forms of spam and more on exploiting the huge audiences found on social networking and mobile platforms. They’ve also begun targeting their campaigns toward specific groups in order to maximize profits, and in a sinister twist, it looks like spam and botnets are being increasingly used to launch cyber-espionage attacks where the goal is to steal top secret documents rather than financial information or money. The incident raises some interesting questions. How can a simple text message be used to set off a bomb and how can cell phone makers and providers block such functionality? Could spam messages actually prove useful in thwarting attacks? Imagine if cellular providers could figure out how to detect when their network is being used for such a thing and were able to automatically send out a fake spam message to block the detonation attempt?

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent


It's not actually the content of the text message that sets the bomb off. It's the fact that they have re-wired the phone so that either the ringer or vibrator motor is the electrical trigger for the bomb. It's just a remote control switch really. People/companies use this stuff all over the world for things like remote starting their car/switching heating/cookers on or off and hundreds of other uses. ANY text would have had the same result. You can add extra hardware or programming so that different text messages do different things but I can't see some terrorist doing that. Those murdering idiots just want the cheapest, easiest, remotest way of setting a device off.

reply to post by SupersonicSerpent

*updates list*

The Unabomber
The Shoe Bomber
The Underwear Bomber
The Spam Bomber

We live in interesting times.

Double post

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by SupersonicSerpent

 

It's not actually the content of the text message that sets the bomb off. It's the fact that they have re-wired the phone so that either the ringer or vibrator motor is the electrical trigger for the bomb. It's just a remote control switch really. People/companies use this stuff all over the world for things like remote starting their car/switching heating/cookers on or off and hundreds of other uses. ANY text would have had the same result. You can add extra hardware or programming so that different text messages do different things but I can't see some terrorist doing that. Those murdering idiots just want the cheapest, easiest, remotest way of setting a device off.

Yeah, but still--you gotta love the irony of it. "Happy New Year...kaBOOM!"

For some reason that reminds me of a story the famous San Francisco writer Herb Caen used to tell. It seems someone had a parrot they'd been trying to teach to talk. One day they left the window of their apartment open, and one of the peregrine falcons that live on the tall buildings of SF swooped through the window and grabbed the parrot and flew off with it--the poor thing screaming the only words it knew all the way: "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"

Hehe.
I like the universe's way of showing that we are not in control.

Originally posted by Ex_CT2

Originally posted by Anon77
reply to post by SupersonicSerpent

 

It's not actually the content of the text message that sets the bomb off. It's the fact that they have re-wired the phone so that either the ringer or vibrator motor is the electrical trigger for the bomb. It's just a remote control switch really. People/companies use this stuff all over the world for things like remote starting their car/switching heating/cookers on or off and hundreds of other uses. ANY text would have had the same result. You can add extra hardware or programming so that different text messages do different things but I can't see some terrorist doing that. Those murdering idiots just want the cheapest, easiest, remotest way of setting a device off.

Yeah, but still--you gotta love the irony of it. "Happy New Year...kaBOOM!"

For some reason that reminds me of a story the famous San Francisco writer Herb Caen used to tell. It seems someone had a parrot they'd been trying to teach to talk. One day they left the window of their apartment open, and one of the peregrine falcons that live on the tall buildings of SF swooped through the window and grabbed the parrot and flew off with it--the poor thing screaming the only words it knew all the way: "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"

Lol, yeah true. The irony is pretty funny.

Hell of a way to bring in the new year with a BANG!