Cookie tins to protect Evonik cell phones
Executives at German chemical company Evonik said that they have started stashing their phones in tin cookie containers because they are effective at blocking electromagnetic radiation. The company said phones are increasingly getting hacked into even when turned off.
Concerns about industrial espionage have driven the German chemical company Evonik to equip every meeting room with a biscuit tin, the company has confirmed to the AFP press agency.
For security reasons staff are required to place mobile phones into the tin before sensitive issues are discussed.
The idea is that the tin will work as a Faraday cage, blocking transmissions which the company fear can be triggered even when the phone is off.
Testing by a cell phone critics website however has shown that many tins are entirely unsuited to protect the phones.
A phone placed inside a McVitie’s Biscuit Assortment tin, for example, can make and receive calls (and thus transmit corporate secrets) without problem.
The same thing applies to a Cadbury’s Roses tin, but Jacob’s Savoury Biscuit Selection come in a container made of sterner stuff, being able to block both 3G and 2G transmissions entirely.
