1993: The Rise of Phone Cloning in NYC | Tomorrow's World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

"On the streets of New York, telephone technology has become the latest battleground between the police and some very serious criminals."

Kate Bellingham presents an item on phone clones. The mobile phone is finally beginning to take off as a mainstream consumer product, as opposed to an elite status symbol, with a new breed of small, digital phones starting to capture the public's interest. In New York, however, criminals are engaging in a new type of electronic crime known as phone cloning. Cloning is the process by which a stolen, blocked phone can be reprogrammed with the identity of another, working phone. Kate takes to the streets of New York with the head of New York's Electronic Crime Squad, to get an idea of the extent of the problem.

Phone cloning can be prevented by fitting mobile phones with a new clipper chip, which provides the latest in encryption technology. However, the FBI want to ban the clipper clip because it would make it impossible for them to tap phones - which is likely to spark a wider debate about mobile phones and the balance between personal privacy and national security.

Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast on BBC One, 10 September, 1993.

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