US Police Can Copy Your iPhone's Contents In Under Two Minutes

US Police Can Copy Your iPhone's Contents In Under Two Minutes

thenextweb.com

It has emerged that Michigan State Police have been using a high-tech mobile forensics device that can extract information from over 3,000 models of mobile phone, potentially grabbing all media content from your iPhone in under two minutes.

The CelleBrite UFED is a handheld device that Michigan officers have been using since August 2008 to copy information from mobile phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The device can circumvent password restrictions and extract existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images,

(visit the link for the full news article)

Further to the decision by the supreme court to allow strip searches for every arrest we saw last week, here is an interesting story that shows there really is no regard for any historically written 'rights' of individuals. This seems to be completely against the 4th ammenment's intention to protect individuals from unwarranted searches be it of their person or their life.

Learning that the police had been using mobile forensic devices, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued freedom of information requests which demand that state officials open up the data collected, to better assess if penalised motorists warrant having their data copied.

Michigan State Police were more than happy to provide the information – as long as the ACLU paid $544,680. Obviously not pocket change.

“Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide,” ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. “No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure.”

Once the data is obtained, the device’s “Physical Analyzer” can map both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth, porting location data and image geotags on Google Maps.

The ACLU’s main worry is that the handheld is quietly being used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches:

“With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity.

A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched.”

The next time you are Michigan, be sure drive carefully!

(I don't know if this is just a scare story or if it is the truth but thought there would be people interested in hearing what is being reported.)

thenextweb.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

2 minutes????? Wow... They sure get thrown to the back of the line when it comes to the techno-gizmos don't they? That sounds at least a couple generations beyond decent spy tech to me.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


it is michigan

heres a tip. dont buy an iphone!!!!

reply to post by spacedonk

You know..you have a point about Michigan. lol....

Seriously though, one of the things that I picked up in my classes on the techie side of computers was how simple it's become to encrypt a notebook at a level they measure hacking attempts in YEARS to describe. Why hasn't someone developed a way to do the same with Iphones and the other smartphone platforms? I'm sure the developers of the phones won't do it. Google and Apple? Yeah... They have no Gov't connetion at all.. lol.. I'd have thought a 3rd party would have a solid...REALLY solid encryption tech for the mobile phones by now though.

Let the cops copy all they like if it's locked tight with 128 or 256 bit encryption. The NSA *COULD* break it..maybe...but they're still hacking away at that WIki Insurance archive huh? Now...one for the phones.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Yeah or any of the other 3000 models... did you even read the text?!

So what happens if I crunch the phone and then hand it to them? Can they still get the data off of it?

Because, frankly, I'd probably do it just to show the officer a point.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


You can encrypt it, but you have to flash it with your own OS, and potentially brick it. Not many people are willing to risk their 500 dollar piece of junk phones

Just stick the phone in a copper bag/pouch and nothing can go in or come out, simple as that. It could even be done with aluminium foil!

reply to post by XL5


thats right, just put it in your tin hat)

reply to post by spacedonk


A few things -

The being able to download issue was discussed on this site sometime back. Depending on what state you are in, its either legal or illegal for the police to perform that action. It is working its way through the courts now to determine if a search warrant is needed or not. If we look at how the courts viewed the GPS on cars issue, ruling the police are required to obtain a warrant first, I can see a similar ruling with this topic.

If I remeber right in michigan there is nothing that specifically allows or prevents the act. In California state courts upheld the law there that allows law enforcement to do it.

As far as strip searches go please be a little more specific when discussing it. Law Enforcement does not have legal authority to strip search anyone. The ruling applies to those people who are arrested and booked into a jail facility. The jail staff, not the arresting officers, can perform the search because of the jail being a controlled enviornment.

reply to post by spacedonk


back in October there was an article from TheBlaze talking about how a California man was found out to be a MJ grower (not a patient) because California police searched his phone when they pulled him over for a traffic violation. What they found on his phone was pictures of himself holding an assault rifle so the "concerned" police officers raided his home with SWAT and discovered he also grew MJ, had thousands in cash, and of course weapons. If your busted for being a drug dealer do not let the police find weapons because the sentence only goes up.

Calif. Appeals Court Approves Cell Phone Searches During Traffic Stops

www.theblaze.com...

In a case explicitly decided to set a precedent, the California Appellate court has determined police officers can rifle through your cellphone during a traffic violation stop.

This is not the first time such a law has been under scrutiny. In April, the Blaze told you about the extraction devices police were using in Michigan to download the entire contents of your phone.

Florida and Georgia are among the states that give no protection to a phone during a search after a violation has been committed. In particular, Florida law treats a smartphone as a “container” for the purposes of a search, similar to say a cardboard box open on the passenger seat, despite the thousands of personal emails, contacts, and photos a phone can carry stretching back years.

But after initially striking down cell phone snooping, California has now joined the list of states that allow cops to go through your phone without a warrant if they decide to impound your car.

Please invent true crypt for iPhone ! I feel so naked without full drive encryption

reply to post by spacedonk


Or you could buy a pay as you go phone for 15 NYC from Walmart put a few minutes on it and hand it to them when they ask u for a phone lol

reply to post by THE_PROFESSIONAL


Meant 15 bucks...typing on iPhone

reply to post by spacedonk

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


www.apple.com...

Data Protection

To protect all data at rest, iPhone features built-in hardware encryption using AES 256-bit encoding. Building on the hardware encryption capabilities of iPhone, email messages and attachments stored on the device can be further secured by using Data Protection. Data Protection uses a user’s device passcode to generate a strong encryption key. This key prevents data from being accessed when the device is locked, ensuring that critical information is secured even if the device is compromised.

if you're jail broken you can download UDID changers, mac spoofers,

and untrackerd
apt.thebigboss.org...

Requires iOS 4.0 or higher

Continuously clean up locationd's history data in the background.

This package installs a daemon (process that can run in the background) to clean the consolidated.db file.

No new icons are added to your homescreen. There are no options to configure.

reply to post by reficul

lol stay away from android phones you mean google will tattle on you if the cops or feds ask them to

reply to post by Xcathdra


That strip search thing: You seem to be missing the point that it will be used to humiliate protestors or anyone else who is a threat to state or corporate power. I say corporate as we all know who the police work for after the millions donate by JP Morgan to the NYPD. That being just one example of the corporate power in America using its close ties with state power and having the cops protect corporate interests just like they use soldiers to get contracts overseas. The whole point of having police is to protect the ones with power and any threat to those established powers are designated as criminals and if you can make a profit off of the whole situation even better. Did policemen shoot protestors and strikers at the will of Mr. Rockefeller, way back when, or did they protect and uphold the citizen's rights? Police exist only to serve those in power and to take away freedom from individuals. I don't see any reason for their existence, when you look at the situation fundamentally and not anecdotally. How about police during the whole Civil Rights movement of the 60's? Did they uphold black people's civil rights or did they try and crush protesters? How about Occupy? What flimsy excuses were lobbed into the debates over civil rights to allow people to accept control through force perpetrated by the police forces? The police are the state's henchmen to fight to maintain the social status quo by protecting those in power, simple as that. I would imagine someone who relies on their existence for a paycheck thinks differently. I am sure that every law is just and right and that the police are just keeping us safe. Just tired of seeing you naively defending the police at every single turn because you think they are altruistic robots or something? Police have the monopoly on force. Do you disagree with that statement?

Let's round up all the bankers and let law enforcement download the contents from THEIR phones.

I bet that will change the laws around this pretty fast.

~Namaste

Originally posted by spacedonk


Further to the decision by the supreme court to allow strip searches for every arrest we saw last week
(visit the link for the full news article)

as i read in this article~:

Going forward from this week on, people arrested in the United States may face a mandatory strip search, even if their offense is minor and authorities don’t suspect them of smuggling any contraband.

That’s because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy sided with the court’s conservatives on Monday, swinging the vote 5-4 in favor of allowing jail officials to conduct a strip search of anyone in their custody.

Those searches may now even be carried out on people who’ve only committed minor offenses like traffic violations or small drug possession, and in cases where there is nothing that meets the previous standard of “reasonable suspicion” that someone may be hiding something.

here

That was the basis for my comment as shown above. I do not know the specifics of the decision beyond what I have read and seen discussed here on ATS. Having only the benefit of reported words regarding the decision of the supreme court and having read the source article for this thread only I thought my comments were quite fair from the OP:

(I don't know if this is just a scare story or if it is the truth but thought there would be people interested in hearing what is being reported.)

As ever Xcathdra your comments are pertinent and useful. Thanks for taking the time to clarify.