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| Science & Technology |
| 'Remote Wiping' of Smartphones a Problem for Security Agencies |
| 2010-05-18 |
| Smartphones that offer the ability to "remote wipe" are great for when your device goes missing and you want to delete your data so that someone else can't look at it, but not so great for the United States Secret Service. The problem is that accomplices can remotely wipe the phones if the agencies don't remember to remove the battery or turn off smartphones before sending them off to the forensics laboratory, said USSS special agent Andy Kearns, speaking yesterday on mobile phone forensics at the AusCERT 2010 security conference. "So if you've got a suspect and you take the cell phone away from him, and he's got somebody on the outside that can help get on the [remote wipe] website to get his phone wiped, all your evidence is gone before you get a chance to examine," he said. Agents were trained to incapacitate devices, but Kearns cautioned that not all enforcement agencies had the same knowledge. "Hopefully our officers are putting the cell phones in a Faraday bag that is shielded, pulling the battery [out] and turning them off [before] getting them into the shielded laboratory." |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |