At least according to Amber Schroader, CEO of forensic-software developer Paraben, interviewed for a Wired article about the iPhone and forensic evidence. You see, it appears that the e-CSI community can’t extract forensic evidence from the iPhone in a way that guarantees the data hasn’t been altered — a requirement for the information to be useful in court. Says Schroader, “The iPhone is evil…It’s Mac OS X, and it’s a completely closed system.”
Hyperbole aside, Wired notes that the actual issue seems to be that “currently, the iPhone is not compatible with existing forensic software and data-extraction systems.” In other words, a brand new device using a new (to mobile phones) operating system is, well, new. It’s going to take a bit of work to master the device. Evil, indeed.
On the other hand, Derrick Donnelly of Blackbag Technologies — a company that specializes in forensic solutions for Macs — notes in the same article that, because much of an iPhone’s data is synced to a computer, you may not need access to the iPhone itself to gather some information.
Still, given all the iPhone hacking going on, I’d be surprised if the smart people in the forensic-software industry don’t have iPhone-compatible solutions before too long. (And perhaps Paraben will hire a few people clue-ful about the Mac, as well.)
Just to keep track:
The iPhone is evil in the eyes of corporate IT because it lacks third party software and security features to protect data on the device. And, the iPhone is evil because forensic experts can not reliably extract data from it.
Other phones are virtuous are pure because of the availability of many security features and third party apps and because data can be reliably extracted by security experts.
Glad I got that straight.
Now, let me get this straight, the FBI can listen in on my conversations whenever they want, even when my phone is turned off, anybody who can steal my iPhone can access any information about me that they want, except for Paraben. Hmm...it sounds like this is a pretty inept CSI business.
Dan, are you ignorning my PM or or maybe you just haven't checked?
Walt: PM?
@Dan: Private Message in the forums.