http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35538
By Tony Dennis
05 November 2006
OVER THE course of three years the UK's Financial Services Authority
(FSA) has admitted to losing 17 laptop PCs valued at a total of 13,000.
The INQ's lost a couple of Psion Revos and several mobile phones.
A spokesman for the FSA told the Sunday Telegraph that, "Our laptops
have tight security, so there's no risk to security." Obviously the data
was encrypted, then.
But how do you accidentally lose so many laptops? The INQ has one answer
you get on a train absolutely bladdered, fall asleep, leap off at your
stop and hey presto! you lose a phone or a PDA.
So how do you go about getting the phone or laptop back? As Michael Cain
put it, "Not a lot of people know this but the Immobilise web site
covers more than just mobile phones.
It also covers laptops, cameras, iPODs, and pedal bikes.
OK. So let's assume you know which train you lost your phone on. What
next? Well, in our case you go onto the South West Trains web site and
fill out the lost property form which is carefully hidden away behind
the 'Contact Us' menu.
Next problem. You ain't that organised. You never got around to keying
*#06# into your GSM handset and taking a note of the handset's unique
IMEI number. Normally that's a disaster since it's virtually impossible
to tell handsets apart unless you have the IMEI number.
But the INQ had kept the box the handset came in and good ole Nokia had
printed its IMEI number on the side.
So the INQ reported the lost phone to the local police station,
Immobilise and South West Trains.
If it ever does get handed in there's more good news. The Metropolitan
Police have set up what it has called the National Mobile Phone Registry
(NMPR).
This searches: The Immobilise National Property Ownership Database, the
National Mobile Phone Register, the Central Equipment Identity Register,
the Stolen Equipment National Database, the Lost Equipment National
Database, the MFound Recovered Property Database and The Mobile Phone
Type Approval Code Database.
Phew! Maybe the INQ might get that phone back after all!
Received on Mon Nov 6 01:21:04 2006