Ride the Lightning

“THE IPHONE IS EVIL:” FORENSIC EXAMINER’S LAMENT

August 23, 2007

Now that the hype of the iPhone’s debut is past, forensic examiners are looking at the iPhone – and not necessarily agreeing on what they are seeing. One of the most brilliant women I know is Amber Schroader (CEO of Paraben, http://www.paraben.com, one of the leading forensic software development companies). Amber flatly says “The iPhone is evil . . . it’s MAC OS X and it’s a completely closed system.” More optimistically, Derrick Donnelly, the chief technology officer of Blackbag Technologies (specializing in Apple forensics technologies, http://www.blackbagtech.com) points to the 4 or 8 GB storage capacity of the iPhone and says “there is more information in there than your average cell phone.” However, he also notes that he is struggling with a way to get the data off the iPhone closed system without altering the data by turning the phone on. Currently, the only solution is to turn the phone on and photograph screens, something that is ordinarily done only with the small minority of phones not yet supported by forensic software. Amber’s grim assessment gives me pause – if she can’t make the doggone thing talk, I doubt anyone can.

E-mail:   Phone: 703-359-0700