IPhones can store a treasure trove of incriminating evidence
Got an iPhone in your pocket? Then you might be storing even more personal information than you realize.
And some of it could be used against you if you’re ever charged with a crime.
A burgeoning field of forensic study deals with iPhones specifically because of their popularity, the demographics of those who own them and what the phone’s technology records during its use.
Law-enforcement experts said iPhone technology records a wealth of information that can be tapped more easily than BlackBerry and Droid devices to help police learn where you’ve been, what you were doing there and whether you’ve got something to hide.
“Very, very few people have any idea how to actually remove data from their phone,” said Sam Brothers, a cell-phone forensic researcher with U.S. Customs and Border Protection who teaches law-enforcement agents how to retrieve information from iPhones in criminal cases.
“It may look like everything’s gone,” he said. “But for anybody who’s got a clue, retrieving that information is easy.”
Two years ago, as iPhone sales skyrocketed, former hacker Jonathan Zdziarski decided law-enforcement agencies might need help retrieving data from the devices.
So he set out to write a 15-page, how-to manual that turned into a 144-page book (“iPhone Forensics,” O’Reilly Media).
That, in turn, led to Zdziarski being tapped by law-enforcement agencies nationwide to teach them just how much information is stored in iPhones — and how that data can be gathered for evidence in criminal cases.
“These devices are people’s companions today,” said Zdziarski, 34, who lives in Maine. “They’re not mobile phones anymore. They organize people’s lives. And if you’re doing something criminal, something about it is probably going to go through that phone.”
It’s an area of forensic science that’s just beginning to explode, law-enforcement and cell phone experts said.
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