Potential for Abuse Stalls Cellphone Kill Switch Debate

Law enforcement officials and mobile phone makers last week knocked heads with wireless carriers over planting "kill switches" in smartphones. Led by San Francisco's DA and New York's AG, law enforcement wants smartphones to contain firmware that allows a consumer to "brick" a mobile that's lost or stolen. The largest mobile phone maker in the world, Samsung, is on board with the program, and a developer of kill-switch software has offered its program to Samsung for free. Problem is, the wireless carriers are cool to the idea.