Michigan State Police and Smart Phones

[Goaticus]

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

"The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

"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."

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly 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," Fancher wrote. "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 national ACLU is currently suing the Department of Homeland Security for its policy of warrantless electronic searches of laptops and cell phones belonging to people entering the country who are not suspected of committing any crime."

[MrBogosity]

Just so everyone knows, CelleBrite UFED can also get information off an Android device. I'd love to know how it's able to do this; maybe someone can make a security app to block it.

(You do run security apps on your smartphone, right? Antivirus, anti-malware, etc.? If not, you may have a LOT more problems than the police...)

[evensgrey]

From what I know of smartphones (and I know more than most, since I used to be 3rd level support for them at Nokia) they pretty much all have a means of completely bypassing the phone's own normal access systems to directly access memory.  This is normally used for writing new OS images to phones, even if the phone itself has been bricked in certain ways (in fact, this is one way to repair a bricked phone, if the problem is a corrupt or incompatible OS image).  Since it doesn't depend on the OS at all, OS and application safeguards are ignored by it.  This is unlikely to be the mechanism here, because the hardware to do the bypass is highly model specific.

One thing I an see happening if this sort of nonsense continues is a resurgence of separate devices, instead of sticking all hand-held device functions into smartphones.

[Goaticus]

I suspect the reason the article only mentions I phones is that it was written in 2008. The main reason I posted it was that it is important to realize that police now have no qualms about accessing information from anyone for any reason by any method. The only current use of the 4th Amendment is to argue after the fact in court.

I assume things like my Hot Pass for driving in Denver can be accessed at anytime for any reason by any Government employee.

[Ibrahim90]

One thing I an see happening if this sort of nonsense continues is a resurgence of separate devices, instead of sticking all hand-held device functions into smartphones.

might be their ulterior motive. protect the separate device industry! 

either way, this whole affair is stupid.