Fourth Amendment smart phones can help the JBTs send you to prison

Discussion in 'Bill of Rights' started by CATO, Mar 3, 2013.


  1. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Here's What Law Enforcement Can Recover From A Seized iPhone - Forbes

    Here's What Law Enforcement Can Recover From A Seized iPhone

    Screen-Shot-2013-02-26-at-4.28.39-PM.
    The call log of a seized iPhone, with numbers redacted.
    You may think of your iPhone as a friendly personal assistant. But once it’s alone in a room full of law enforcement officials, you might be surprised at the revealing things it will say about you.
    On Tuesday the American Civil Liberties Union published a report it obtained from a drug investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, documenting the seizure and search of a suspect’s iPhone from her bedroom. While it’s no surprise that a phone carries plenty of secrets, the document presents in stark detail a list of that personal information, including call logs, photos, videos, text messages, Web history, eight different passwords for various services, and perhaps most importantly, 659 previous locations of the phone invisibly gathered from Wifi networks and cell towers.
    “We know the police have started using tools that can do this. We’ve known the iPhone retains records of the cell towers it contacts. But we’ve never before seen the huge amount of data police can obtain,” says ACLU technology lead Chris Soghoian, who found the report in a court filing. “It shouldn’t be shocking. But it’s one thing to know that they’re using it. It’s another to see exactly what they get.”
    In this case, ICE was able to extract the iPhone’s details with the help of the forensics firm Cellebrite. The suspect doesn’t seem to have enabled a PIN or passcode. But even when those login safeguards are set up in other cases, law enforcement have still often been able to use tools to bypass or brute-force a phone’s security measures. Google in some cases helps law enforcement to get past Android phones’ lockscreens, and if law enforcement can’t crack a seized iPhone, officers will in some cases mail the phone to Apple, who extract the data and return it stored on a DVD along with the locked phone.
    The phone search and seizure described in the documented case required a warrant. But the legality of warrantless phone searches remains an open issue. At U.S. borders or when arresting a suspect, for instance, police and government officials have argued that no such warrant is required.
    Failing legal protections, the ACLU’s Soghoian says those who’d like to keep prying eyes away from their handsets’ data should use long, complex passcodes and encrypt their phone’s storage disk. “While the law does not sufficiently protect the private data on smartphones, technology can at least provide some protection,” Soghoian writes.
    Here’s the full court document detailing the iPhone’s forensic search.

    iPhone Seizure Report
     
  2. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Methinks it's time for a nuke function for these devices. Hmmm, I wonder ......

    Now I know why I don't have a cell/smart phone. It wasn't the recurring month cost, it was for OpSec! Yeah, I'll go with that.
     
  3. sniper69

    sniper69 Monkey+

  4. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    your nuke button is already on the phone, and anyone can do it. simply ask you service tech for the factory reset code. all histories, all contacts, all personal setting, gone. Might be able to do something with the harddrive, but not without some major work.
     
  5. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    I wonder if a 'Reset All' restore actually clears /var or if it just cleans the user settings
     
  6. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    I know they fail to find any phone numbers of any kind after a reset. they can't transfer or even read anything even being there. there is no recovery possible at the store level. Tech level? I don't know.
     
  7. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    iPhone Security Unbreakable? Security Gurus Disagree - Smb - Security

    Interesting. All data stored on an iPhone is encrypted. When you 'Erase all', you delete the encryption key. A quick power cycle then overwrites the unattached data.

    I suppose if you were up to no good and felt that your iPhone was about to be snatched, you could quickly go in and initiate a nuke and then turn off the phone. I'm surprised there isn't a 1-click nuke all app.
     
  8. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    glycerin+KMNO4 nuke function.
     
  9. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    If you are up to no good, leave the phone turned off at home.:)
     
    NotSoSneaky likes this.
  10. brandonnash

    brandonnash Monkey


    That would work except the length that they go to can easily produce all that info by data recovery on a SD card. That info is still exists on the SD card as an image until another image replaces it on that exact spot on the card.
     
  11. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    They could on mine, because I have a back-up file on my SD card. remove the SD card, and burn it? or is it magnet sensitive?
     
  12. brandonnash

    brandonnash Monkey


    SD cards are immune to magnets. You need an electric field to wipe it. So if you are in big enough trouble that you are seriously worried about your phone contents I would hope to get tazed on or around where my phone is. That might do the trick. Its best to not have anything on your phone like that in the first place. Keep your GPS turned off. And I don't think there is any proxy settings for blocking or creating a 4th party "phantom" access to cell towers.


    The getting tazed bit was a joke. Don't try to get tazed. It would not be pleasant.
     
    kellory likes this.
  13. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    My GPS is used every day on every job, but it is set for "stand alone GPS" and according to my phone tech, can not be tracked remotely. by computer. (There is a setting for that, (latitude, I think it's called) so friends and family can know where you are). and factory reset should wipe out the on-phone memory. As I understand it, GPS receivers do not transmit at all, but read the signals from what the sats send.
     
    AmericanRedoubt1776 likes this.
  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    You are, Basically, correct, in that GPS is a RECEIVE ONLY technology... However, understand that there ARE Transponders, that DO have GPS Receivers in them that can and DO report their location back to interested Parties, via various Comm Links. (Cellular, SAT Based, WIFI, & various RF Frequencies) These are used in Wildlife Tracking, Police Survelance, and many other areas. Any Cellphone/GPS COMBINED UNIT can be hacked to make it function as TRANSPONDER, unbenonced to the USER, or noted in the User Interface. In such situations, the ONLY RECOURSE is to remove the Battery. ..... You have been WARNED....
     
    AmericanRedoubt1776 and VisuTrac like this.
  15. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    My kind of solution....
     
    VisuTrac likes this.
  16. brandonnash

    brandonnash Monkey

    And also don't forget about triangulation. Cell towers work in tandem to get the best service. Driving for a long time while talking you are getting your signals from multiple towers. This is much more difficult to do and unlikely a local agency would have technology for this. But always be aware. Check your bill next time you get it. If its a long bill that has all your calls you will notice that each have a location next to them.


    And for wiping the SD card...SD Card Data Recovery: How to Recover Files from SD Card

    You would be best off creating a sort of batch file that wipes and immediately starts downloading a large random file. That way the areas of the SD card are replaced with new data, thus fully erasing that original data.
     
  17. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Yep, it even has a built in delay function, you'd think it was designed that way. Once the cap is popped, there is no abort. Here Mr. ICE man , have my phone.
     
  18. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    As Melbo stated, for the iPhones, all data is stored Encrypted, and a Master Reset deletes and overwrites the Encryptin Key, and therefor makes all previously Stored Data for that iPhone, UNRECOVERABLE. It is True, that SD Storage Cards, where data is stored, unEncrypted, can be recovered, without much trouble. So, if you have an iPhone, then you need to use the Master Reset, if your phone is compromised, and this can be done REMOTELY, by using one of the special Apps available for them. Once the phone is recovered, you can reEstablish All Contact Data, Pictures, Music, Apps, and some Data, by reSyncing the unit with the connected iTunes App on the Registered Computer for that iPhone. Not so sure how this works on Android Systems...
     
    AmericanRedoubt1776 likes this.
  19. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Then you sue their Pants OFF, for the cost of replacing your Phone....if they are still alive... It would be very hard for them to prosecute one for giving them the device, because it was NOT voluntarily surrendered... Their Problem, Their Issue... Beware of Gift Horses....
     
  20. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Geez, I'm glad I don't use all the capabilities of my smartphone. Anyone know if Windows is less susceptible? Maybe I'll switch.
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7