Non easy finding criminal data on cell phones and game consoles

By Tim Greene, from Network World

"Non-traditional communications devices such as smartphones and game consoles pose a particular problem to law enforcement agencies trying to milk them for forensic data that reveals criminal activity, attendees were told at the 2010 Computer Forensics Show in New York City. [...] Retrieving SMS messages can depend on the model of phone, the carrier, the time of day, even the country in which the phone is used. SIM cards removed from phones carry potentially useful forensic information, but unless it is associated with a particular phone's PIN, it's inaccessible."

"Game consoles pose a separate problem. They can be used to send e-mail and connect to the Internet but have very little internal memory so whatever is on the drive can be quickly over written and therefore gone forever, he says. "You can take a Wii onto the Internet and it doesn't save sites or browser history," he says. "If you type in a Web address and surf, 10 minutes later there's no record of it."

Read the full article: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/042310-fbi-cell-phones-game-consoles.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_strategies_2010-04-27

Read about mobile devices at: http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/encyclopedia/index/mobile-device.html#msc.encyclopedia.mobiledevice

Read about online gaming and its threats at: http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/secure/games.html#msc.smc-topic.games