[Year 12 IT Apps] This is a good one for U4O2 - your iphone is watching you...

[Mark Kelly]

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/hacker-says-sec.html

"If you've got an iPhone, pretty much everything you have done on your 
handset has been temporarily stored as a screenshot that hackers or 
forensics experts could eventually recover, according to a renowned 
iPhone hacker who exposed the security flaw in a webcast Thursday.

"While demonstrating how to break the iPhone's passcode lock in a 
webcast, iPhone hacker and data-forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski 
explained that the popular handset snaps a screenshot of your most 
recent action -- regardless of whether it's sending a text message, 
e-mailing or browsing a web page -- in order to cache it. This is purely 
for aesthetic purposes: When an iPhone user taps the Home button, the 
window of the application you have open shrinks and disappears. In order 
to create that shrinking effect, the iPhone snaps a screenshot, 
Zdziarski said."

"The phone presumably deletes the image after you close the application. 
But anyone who understands data is aware that in most cases, deletion 
does not permanently remove files from a storage device. Therefore, 
forensics experts have used this security flaw to successfully nab 
criminals who have been accused of rape, murder or drug deals, Zdziarski 
said.

"There's no way to prevent it," Zdziarski said during the webcast. "I'm 
kind of divided on it. I hope Apple fixes it because it's a significant 
privacy leak, but at the same time it's been useful for investigating 
criminals."

-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager - Information Systems
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
School Phone +613 8520 9000
School Fax +613 95789253
kel AT mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au

Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
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