5 ms·
If there's any meaningful risk of someone erasing content from a cell phone in a police evidence locker, no evidence stored in said locker can be considered rel
by Zak 16y ago
If there's any meaningful risk of someone erasing content from a cell phone in a police evidence locker, no evidence stored in said locker can be considered reliable. As an example, the barrel of a firearm could be replaced between logging in to evidence and ballistic testing[0] or possible drugs could be swapped with real or fake drugs before lab testing.
[0] This procedure takes only a few seconds on many handguns. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneUifU_0Bs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gneUifU_0Bs
- anigbrowl 16y agoPhysical objects can't be reconfigured via the net. My cellphone can; I could use Chrome2Phone to direct it to a page containing a script causing my phone to reformat its data card, for example.
- tptacek 16y agoWow. Good point. Please stop talking before you convince the courts to mandate auto-phone-search at traffic stops.
- natep 16y agoNot if they put your phone in a faraday cage (could be a bag, box, or room) where it doesn't have any signal to the outside world, right?
- anigbrowl 16y agoCron job - deadman switch. I would assume a full forensic workover of your phone just like a computer, if arrested for anything: police will collect it and let the DA argue admissibility later, in court.