Fergie's Tech Blog

CSI Stick Grabs Data From Cell Phones

Marc Weber Tobias writes on C|Net News:

There is a new electronic capture device that has been developed primarily for law enforcement, surveillance, and intelligence operations that is also available to the public. It is called the Cellular Seizure Investigation Stick, or CSI Stick as a clever acronym. It is manufactured by a company called Paraben, and is a self-contained module about the size of a BIC lighter. It plugs directly into most Motorola and Samsung cell phones to capture all data that they contain. More phones will be added to the list, including many from Nokia, RIM, LG and others, in the next generation, to be released shortly.

I recently attended and lectured at the Techno-Security conference in Myrtle Beach, Fla. About 1,500 law enforcement and security professionals participated and were briefed on the latest in cybersecurity vulnerabilities from participating federal agents, manufacturers, and cyber-consultants. The CSI Stick caught my attention because of the potential to rapidly and covertly download all of the information contained in many cell phones.

This device connects to the data/charging port and will seamlessly grab e-mails, instant messages, dialed numbers, phone books and anything else that is stored in memory. It will even retrieve deleted files that have not been overwritten. And there is no trace whatsoever that the information has been compromised, nor any risk of corruption. This may be especially troublesome for corporate employees and those that work for government agencies.

posted by Fergie @ 8/30/2008 11:18:00 AM