Palm data and PPC data is not totally safe in any way

A

atiqa a

New member
Just found a doc on the NIST.gov (National Institute of Standards and Technology) that shows law enforcement how to retrieve data (even protected, encrypted and DELETED). I'm not going to voice my opinion (being a journalist and all) on whether this is good or bad but I would like to hear what you all think.

Here is a link to the .PDF file: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistir/nistir-7100-PDAForensics.pdf

Cheers!

-CH

edit: link to the Palminfocenter article: http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=7190
 
First, I'm not sure what intrusion you're talking about. The government has to get a warrant to seize your PDA. They can't get data from your PDA just by grabbing it out of your hands one day. Generally, the government has to convince a judge you may have done something wrong before they'll get a warrant.

Second, all this report was is the usual government laziness and ineptitude rolled up into a PDF report to justify their existence. There's not one of the programs they reviewed that you can't get from the net in 10 minutes. Heck, these geniuses couldn't even figure out how to crack a password on a an OS 5.x Palm. Again, I can get a password cracking program on the net in 10 minutes. The big brains were also able to figure out that, if you did a hotsync before they could seize your Palm, all the deleted files would be gone so make sure you hot sync regularly. :) They didn't even address the issue of dealing with 128 bit encrypted or PGP software.

This is just another bunch at NIST who have justify their existence by cutting and pasting things from the web and running a few simple tests with programs that aren't even the best in their fields if you want to really find out what's on somebody's Palm. I'm much more concerned about yet more waste of my tax money on dumb reports like this than whether or not this represents some threat to my freedom.
 
I tend to agree with the most notable Jim Cooke on this one. The NIST is trying to justify their existence.

A PDA is a personal thing and it should remain that way unless you've done something illegal which justifies a warrant for peering into your private life, including your PDA.

With all the CSI type programs on TV now a days, I haven't seen any "rush" by the masses to go out and wrap their bodies in disposable trash bags to avoid having someone track their DNA trail through the mall. Sure it's a scary thing that they can get into such a "personal device" but I think it's scary'r that we are overly concerned that Big Brother is going to do so on a whim! There isn't enough government around to do so - at the moment. Sure the potential is there but when was the last time someone was targeted because of their PDA.

Paul's correct that we are losing some of our "privacy" but that's partially because we have to due to the population explosion. The day is coming (ala 1984) when we will be injected with a Personal Identification Device at birth so that we can be "tracked". It will also enable us to be free of some of the burdens of life that we know at the moment. Such as, credit cards money bills....rather than having to write out checks twice a month or show your Liscense with a credit card - it'll be magically handled as you approach the ticket counter or movei theater line or step on an airplane.


If you don't want to have to worry about this kinda of potential intrusion then you better get off the grid.

You can become a hermit and live in the woods of Montana and go insane and start sending mail bombs to various governmental agencies, ala....Ted what's his name.

Or you can grin and bare it until Big Brother really crosses the line and starts doing something really obtrusive.

Did anyone every wonder how come certain employess at Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and IBM have Governmental Security Clearance? They have too in order to protect certain "secrets" within the technology they develop.

The internet is based upon a "universal" language that was designed with governmental approval in mind.......it's all regulated and monitored.

If you say the word terrorist (oops did it again) in a cellular phone conversation or post it in a forum.....someone may look at it.

I've been saying this for years: If it's electronic and it's got data in it....it's never 100% safe. The guy, (Jeff Hawkins in this case) that invented it can figure out a way to get the data out. It's just a matter of money and time....mostly money.

I'm going back to my bomb making now.


:D
 
Moose, your last statement about a "b" may give you a visit from the Secret Service or the FBI. Good luck man. You might want to append that bud.

-Seth
 
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