|
Criminals Use MP3 Players for Data Storage |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, 16 August 2005 |
Criminals Use
MP3 Players for Data Storage
Newhouse News Service (NNS) - USA
When London police raided the homes of a gang of suspected car thieves
last year, they were surprised to find forged sale documents, bogus bank
statements and other incriminating materials -- all stored on an iPod.
To some computer security experts, the incident sent a message: Portable digital
music players can no longer be regarded simply as entertainment machines. Those
experts are urging law enforcement officials to better learn how criminals can
obtain and conceal vast quantities of information using the devices.
Palm-sized MP3 players -- the best-known is Apple Computer's iPod, but dozens of
brands are available -- can hold any type of file, not just downloaded music.
Some are capable of storing up to 60 gigabytes of information, the equivalent of
15,000 songs or 25,000 photographs.
"We want to get word out that these are great devices -- I've got three of them
-- but they're going to get perverted and used in ways that we haven't thought
of before," said Marcus Rogers, a Purdue University computer technology
professor and researcher at the school's Center for Education and Research in
Information Assurance and Security. "The bad guys are creative."
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
