[Steve™]

As the communications device grows in popularity, technology experts and US law enforcement agencies are devoting increasing efforts to understanding their potential for forensics investigators.

While police have tracked criminals by locating their position via conventional mobile phone towers, iPhones offer far more information, say experts.

"There are a lot of security issues in the design of the iPhone that lend themselves to retaining more personal information than any other device," said Jonathan Zdziarski, a former computer hacker who now teaches US law enforcers how to retrieve data from mobile phones.

"These devices organise people's lives and, if you're doing something criminal, something about it is going to go through that phone." Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the product was launched in 2007.

Mr Zdziarski told The Daily Telegraph he suspected that security had been neglected on the iPhone as it had been intended as a consumer product rather than a business one like rivals such as the Blackberry.

An example was the iPhone's keyboard logging cache, which was designed to correct spelling but meant that an expert could retrieve anything typed on the keyboard over the past three to 12 months, he said.

In addition, every time an iPhone's internal mapping system is closed down, the device snaps a screenshot of the phone's last position and stores it.

Investigators could access "several hundred" such images from the iPhone and so establish its user's whereabouts at certain times, he said.

In a further design feature that can also help detectives, iPhone photos include so-called "geotags" so that, if posted online, they indicate precisely where a picture was taken and the serial number of the phone that took it.

"Very, very few people have any idea how to actually remove data from their phone," a mobile phone researcher for US Customs and Border Protection told the Detroit Free Press.

"It may look like everything's gone but for anybody who's got a clue, retrieving that information is easy."

---

Another HUGE reason not to buy an iPhone!!

[jim_uk]

Didn't the spooks take Obamas Blackberry away and give him a special one because of security concerns? I doubt very much this sort of thing is just an issue for Apple, I've not heard much from other manufacturers about security, no one seems too bothered at the moment. On the subject of Geotagging, a lot of phones do this not just with photos but even things like Twitter, it's best to leave it switched off, the last thing you want to do is upload a photo or tweet something only to give away where you live.

[DotNetWill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim_uk

Didn't the spooks take Obamas Blackberry away and give him a special one because of security concerns? I doubt very much this sort of thing is just an issue for Apple, I've not heard much from other manufacturers about security, no one seems too bothered at the moment. On the subject of Geotagging, a lot of phones do this not just with photos but even things like Twitter, it's best to leave it switched off, the last thing you want to do is upload a photo or tweet something only to give away where you live.

A "special one" otherwise known as a Blackberry :P

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DotNetWill

A "special one" otherwise known as a Blackberry :P

I thought one of the usual defence contractors supplied him with a WinMo phone?

http://gizmodo.com/5130922/obamas-bl...s-mobile-brick

[DotNetWill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

I thought one of the usual defence contractors supplied him with a WinMo phone?

http://gizmodo.com/5130922/obamas-bl...s-mobile-brick

Could be, I thought I'd read somewhere that only blackberry's met the required encryption standard.

[psionic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim_uk

Didn't the spooks take Obamas Blackberry away and give him a special one because of security concerns? I doubt very much this sort of thing is just an issue for Apple, I've not heard much from other manufacturers about security, no one seems too bothered at the moment. On the subject of Geotagging, a lot of phones do this not just with photos but even things like Twitter, it's best to leave it switched off, the last thing you want to do is upload a photo or tweet something only to give away where you live.

Exactly, I would imagine most Smartphones have similar issues. We put too much information on them. I guess if you're planning anything criminal - stick to a basic phone. But of course they can also be tapped and traced etc. etc. Geotagging is a pretty cool feature IMHO. I can't see any point to hiding where a photo was taken. Might as well just put a black cloth over the lens and have done with it

(if you're that concerned about hiding the location of a photo - either turn the geo-tagging (location services) off or don't go around uploading pictures to public sites)

[Vallhund]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve™

Another HUGE reason not to buy an iPhone!!

You seem to believe every piece of FUD going about the iPhone no matter how dubious the source. A bit of critical thinking would be appreciated.

[legends wear 7]

fact of the matter is criminals use unregistered prepay handsets.

[jim_uk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by psionic

Exactly, I would imagine most Smartphones have similar issues. We put too much information on them. I guess if you're planning anything criminal - stick to a basic phone. But of course they can also be tapped and traced etc. etc. Geotagging is a pretty cool feature IMHO. I can't see any point to hiding where a photo was taken. Might as well just put a black cloth over the lens and have done with it

(if you're that concerned about hiding the location of a photo - either turn the geo-tagging (location services) off or don't go around uploading pictures to public sites)

I've uploaded pictures of our cats to the pets forum here, I wouldn't want to upload our home address with them. I keep the bugger off and only let it use the location thing when searching for local shops/businesses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

I thought one of the usual defence contractors supplied him with a WinMo phone?

http://gizmodo.com/5130922/obamas-bl...s-mobile-brick

I read he was having none of it, he wanted a Blackberry. David Cameron didn't want to give his up either.

http://www.portablegadget.com/blackb...-outriders-and

[zantarous]

if you remove the word iphone from the OPs post and replace it with smart phone you will find most of those things are applicable to most of them.

Geotagging isn't just limited to phones now, even new cameras are coming with GPS built in.

I think the OP should be more worried about what the police could find on you home PC then your mobile phone.

[PhilStix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by legends wear 7

fact of the matter is criminals use unregistered prepay handsets.

They also swap SIM's, handsets, etc. Drop their phones regularly. Have dirty phones and clean phones. It is also suspected that they use VoIP and favour Blackberry encryption for messaging.

Whatever the case you get smart criminals and dumb criminals they reflect society as a whole, just the same as any other demographic.

[Soundburst]

My iPhone KNOWS I've been at my friends house this evening?

It knows I've stayed in beds that aren't my own?

Are they going to analyse this information and Facebook my call outing my shenanigans?

Oh. My. God. I'm done for.

[Steve™]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundburst

Are they going to analyse this information and Facebook my call outing my shenanigans?

Oh. My. God. I'm done for.

Rest assured, they are busy with something more interesting like the drying of paint.

[Gormond]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zantarous

if you remove the word iphone from the OPs post and replace it with smart phone you will find most of those things are applicable to most of them.

Geotagging isn't just limited to phones now, even new cameras are coming with GPS built in.

I think the OP should be more worried about what the police could find on you home PC then your mobile phone.

Yeah but then he wouldn't get to bash Apple....

Everyone know Google are the worst company for privacy, just look at the Wi-Fi thing with the street cars. I would bet Android provides google with all kinds of information which is why they don't charge for it.

[dontpannic]

Thanks for this Steve, gives me some food for thought.

Any feasible source for this or was it sourced from an anti-Apple technology blog?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve™

While police have tracked criminals by locating their position via conventional mobile phone towers, iPhones offer far more information, say experts.

We knew this anyway, it has a GPS chip!

Quote:

"There are a lot of security issues in the design of the iPhone that lend themselves to retaining more personal information than any other device," said Jonathan Zdziarski, a former computer hacker who now teaches US law enforcers how to retrieve data from mobile phones.

So this is solely the iPhone is it? I think you'll find its most smartphones to be fair!

Quote:

"These devices organise people's lives and, if you're doing something criminal, something about it is going to go through that phone."

No shit, Sherlock. People have used electronic devices to organise thier lives for a good long while now!

Quote:

Mr Zdziarski told The Daily Telegraph he suspected that security had been neglected on the iPhone as it had been intended as a consumer product rather than a business one like rivals such as the Blackberry.

I doubt it, the security procedures in place are very secure especially for enterprise level Exchange mail servers.

Quote:

An example was the iPhone's keyboard logging cache, which was designed to correct spelling but meant that an expert could retrieve anything typed on the keyboard over the past three to 12 months, he said.

Oh no! The custom dictionary!

I think you'll find that Windows Mobile has the same thing, so does Symbian, and I think Blackberry OS also has this feature! Even Microsoft Word!

I'd like proof please. I'd happily lend a phone to see if this "expert" "could" retrieve EVERYTHING that had been typed.

Quote:

In addition, every time an iPhone's internal mapping system is closed down, the device snaps a screenshot of the phone's last position and stores it.

Yep, to aid the starting of the maps application next time. oh, and it isn't a snapshot(!), its a location. You'll find that it isn't stored either. If it was, I think a lot of people would be wondering where thier storage is going!! Its held in memory until the Maps application is forced to close due to memory management.

Quote:

Investigators could access "several hundred" such images from the iPhone and so establish its user's whereabouts at certain times, he said.

Could we have something a gnats more direct, rather than "COULD" access "Several" hundred such images.

Quote:

In a further design feature that can also help detectives, iPhone photos include so-called "geotags" so that, if posted online, they indicate precisely where a picture was taken and the serial number of the phone that took it.

Whoop-de-shit. So do many new cameras, and most Smartphones now have this feature. Why pick out the iPhone?!

Quote:

"It may look like everything's gone but for anybody who's got a clue, retrieving that information is easy."

Then we must write articles about FAT and NTFS filesystems too!

Quote:

Another HUGE reason not to buy an iPhone!!

Not particularly. I think the ability to shove it up your anal cavity is a slightly more compelling decision maker than the content of this "article".

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

We knew this anyway, it has a GPS chip!

The question is whether or not the data from it is easily accessible by the authorities or whoever might want it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

I doubt it, the security procedures in place are very secure especially for enterprise level Exchange mail servers.

Was this before or after all that business where many iPhones suddenly stopped connecting to Exchange servers after an OS update, because Apple had fixed a previous behaviour where the device would lie to the server about on-device encryption? (I think it was the 3GS that actually had encryption, so could still connect if the server demanded it, but older models could not).

It's that sort of business that makes RIM stay at the top.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

Whoop-de-shit. So do many new cameras, and most Smartphones now have this feature. Why pick out the iPhone?!

I've never used the iPhone's camera app, but does it do this automatically? On my current phone I have to turn it on every time it starts up, and on the previous one I had to install an application.

[skunkboy69]

Not much of a spy if it can't get reception to send the info back

[dontpannic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

It's that sort of business that makes RIM stay at the top.

How secure do you feel knowing that all of the exchange communications that your phone is doing is actually going through a BIS somewhere? At least on the iPhone I know that if I don't want anyone else snooping my exchange mailbox etc I can turn the phone off or destroy it.

Quote:

I've never used the iPhone's camera app, but does it do this automatically? On my current phone I have to turn it on every time it starts up, and on the previous one I had to install an application.

If you allow it to, yes. The first few times that you open the camera app it asks if you want it to know the location. If you don't allow, it doesn't Geotag. Also, if you allowed it and now don't want to, you can alter that setting in the Location Services menu... The article that Steve posted is hardly worth the ink its been printed with!

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

How secure do you feel knowing that all of the exchange communications that your phone is doing is actually going through a BIS somewhere? At least on the iPhone I know that if I don't want anyone else snooping my exchange mailbox etc I can turn the phone off or destroy it.

You mentioned "enterprise level Exchange servers" in your initial post. Wouldn't you then use BES Express or full on BES?
Wouldn't that mean that the server is then controlled by the company itself and not RIM or the network?

(I'm not actually a BlackBerry user, I'm going by what I have read)

[dontpannic]

I always thought that the Blackberry email service went through Blackberry's servers - as you can administer the email account setups through a web front-end. Its definitely something like that, your mail is definitely stored elsewhere.

[DotNetWill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

I always thought that the Blackberry email service went through Blackberry's servers - as you can administer the email account setups through a web front-end. Its definitely something like that, your mail is definitely stored elsewhere.

I think you do for the push notifications or you can have your own federated service. Either way I'm pretty certain that the emails are encrypted with your own keys and certs otherwise it'd be useless if RIM can man in the middle it.

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

I always thought that the Blackberry email service went through Blackberry's servers - as you can administer the email account setups through a web front-end. Its definitely something like that, your mail is definitely stored elsewhere.

Isn't that what BIS is?

BES, according to http://crackberry.com/blackberry-101...ats-difference, is different:

Quote:

It’s all about privacy. In the case of BIS, everything operates on a public network. Data from your phone to your carrier is encrypted, but ultimately your carrier is communicating with the Internet, which isn’t exactly the pinnacle of a secure environment. The odds of somebody intercepting your data, or worse, compromising the different systems you access, are much higher. I don’t want to scare anyone though: BIS is typically more secure than accessing the Internet from home using an ISP, and is WAY more secure than using WiFi or BlueTooth.

With BES, most of your data remains in a private, closed network. Your BlackBerry has a secure link directly to the corporate environment, because the BES server is located in the office somewhere. The only way for someone to monitor or intercept your data would be for them to infiltrate your organization.

There also appear to be other advantages like pushing apps to phones and restricting what apps can and can't have internet access. Does Apple have anything close to that?

[psionic]

Not out of the box and by default.

Another corporate thing is Remote Wipe - which will erase the phone in case of loss or theft etc. AFAIK the iPhone can only do that with a MobileMe subscription, along with remotely locate phone, push nag message to phone and make it give off an alarm (even if muted). It costs £59/year (or £99/year for five phones/accounts) to have these extras (along with all the the other usual MobileMe push sync services) I believe.

[Jelite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve™

---

Another HUGE reason not to buy an iPhone if your a criminal!!

fixed

[Soundburst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dontpannic

How secure do you feel knowing that all of the exchange communications that your phone is doing is actually going through a BIS somewhere? At least on the iPhone I know that if I don't want anyone else snooping my exchange mailbox etc I can turn the phone off or destroy it.



If you allow it to, yes. The first few times that you open the camera app it asks if you want it to know the location. If you don't allow, it doesn't Geotag. Also, if you allowed it and now don't want to, you can alter that setting in the Location Services menu... The article that Steve posted is hardly worth the ink its been printed with!

The OP is well know for trying to tarnish the Apple brand even though he doesn't own the products he moans about.

Hence him signalling out the iPhone for problems when most other phones do the same things...and not mentioning that you can turn off the likes of geotagging if you choose.

More Steve hyperbole im afraid.