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A Device to Grab Data From Cell Phones

Posted by Soulskill on from the yoink dept.

what about writes "Apparently there is a quick, simple, and undetectable way to grab all of your cellphone data. CNet reports on the Cellular Seizure Investigation (CSI) Stick, developed for law enforcement but available to the public, which 'connects to the data/charging port and will seamlessly grab e-mails, instant messages, dialed numbers, phone books and anything else that is stored in memory. It will even retrieve deleted files that have not been overwritten. And there is no trace whatsoever that the information has been compromised, nor any risk of corruption. This may be especially troublesome for corporate employees and those that work for government agencies.' I use mobile knox, a secure storage application, for my important data, but I would be very upset if somebody grabbed my telephone list, SMS, or anything else from my locked phone."

10 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. All phones? by gevreet · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seems to only support motorola/samsung (and I suspect usb only) http://csistick.com/models.html

  2. Probable Cause and Warrants by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the US, we used to have this requirement that the government protect our rights:

    Amendment IV
    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    Without probable cause and a legitimate warrant based on it, there is no reasonable search or seizure, no usable evidence. There's only an armed gang assaulting and violating their victim.

    A fancy new way to invade privacy is just an expensive and effective battering ram.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Probable Cause and Warrants by noco80 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, you should read up on your Supreme Court jurisprudence. The Court, led by Justice Thomas, has begun to read the text literally. If you notice, there is no requirement that a search be made after a warrant is granted. Instead, it protects people from unreasonable searches. WHEN a warrant is issued, that warrant must be based upon probable cause. Generally, it has been presumed that a search of an area where a person has a legitimate expectation of privacy is only reasonable when done pursuant to a warrant. This view, though, is not the only one. The Court has begun to evaluate a search as whether it is unreasonable - not merely if it was done pursuant to a warrant.

    2. Re:Probable Cause and Warrants by daigu · · Score: 2, Informative

      I notice you failed to address cases that support the parent's argument, perhaps the most obvious was Clarence Thomas agreement with the Bush administration regarding executive authority in Hamdi v. Rumsfield. Please feel free to outline an argument that indicates Clarence Thomas was not acting as - what does the right wing call it - an "activist judge" promoting an ideology over law. Also, for extra credit, add in a comment or two about Clarence Thomas and stare decisis and what that means in a legal system that is normally thought of as common law. Since you paint yourself as so knowledgable on these topics, I eagerly await your response so that I might be better informed.

    3. Re:Probable Cause and Warrants by sgt_doom · · Score: 2, Informative
      Statements like this is why you're a commie stooge, Doc.

      Doc...a commie stooge???? Hilarious???

      Niggling points about Thomas are truly silly, as he is indeed a rightwing stooge, and the Justices, similarly to "our" senators and representatives, practice something known as "throwaway votes" (or decisions in this case), whereby the vote one way after ascertaining the way the majority is voting to appear to be politically rightwing, or leftwing or centrist. If your state has two senators of the same party - do a graph sometime to correlate their votes - and include all their votes - as the only votes they cast which truly count are those votes for leglislation which passes --- or those votes against legislation, which fails to pass.

      Remember, America - as this is what we're discussing in this thread - is a socialist plutocracy which has given plenty of military tech to a "communist" country of China (really just a totalitarian capitalist state). No commie stoogies here.....

  3. Re:How much? Where? by EdIII · · Score: 2, Informative

    My thoughts exactly. It would be nice if it could also *write* to the phone though. Backing up without being able to restore isn't all that useful.

    It is a forensic product. Any product in that field that changes the evidence is worthless, therefore it is entirely appropriate that it does not write anything at all to the phones.

  4. Re:This only works on SOME phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I see a market for "secure" phones where the data part of the data/charging port is disabled unless you plug in a key or type in a code. Many companies will gladly pay for such a device.

    You know what those "secure" phones are called? Blackberries. Go buy one today!

    On a blackberry, you can have all content on the phone strongly encrypted with AES. If your company has a blackberry enterprise server, you can even make this mandatory and prevent the user from disabling content encryption.

    If content encryption is on, then the blackberry won't send data via the data port or bluetooth until the password is entered. Enter the wrong password 10 times and the blackberry securely wipes itself.

    Despite the proliferation of mobile phones & wireless email, no one comes close to the blackberry platform for features & security. Not iphone, not windows mobile, not nokia. Some very smart people at RIM have looked at wireless email from end-to-end. The blackberry platform has also been audited from end-to-end by many governments and tech experts. What RIM really needs is a good marketing campaign to establish themselves as a "cool" brand.

  5. Re:How much? Where? by barzok · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not all phones support all functions by plugging into the PC

    *cough*Anything from Verizon*cough*

  6. Re:How much? Where? by GodBlessTexas · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, you can find it at csistick.com. Price is $299 for the hardware + Device Seizure Lite software to access the acquired data.

    I have a couple of these at work, since my job is as a forensics investigator, and they're nifty, but they're very limited in what you can do with them since they only support Motorola and Samsung. There are better tools out there:
    PDA Seizure, Cell Seizure, Pilot-Link (Open Source), BitPIM (Open Source), ForensicSIM, etc.

    --
    Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...
  7. A convenient list of phones not to buy by erroneus · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://csistick.com/models.html -- Remember, before buying or recommending a phone, check this list to be sure your phone is not on it.