Futures regulators want smartphone hacking device

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20111024_7468.php

By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov
10/24/2011

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is searching for a phone 
hacking tool to investigate suspects' mobile devices for evidence of 
links to Ponzi schemes, insider trades and other illicit dealings.

With Americans' increasing reliance on smartphones, evidence of fraud 
often can be found in phonebook contacts, call history logs, text 
messages and locational data, according to computer forensics experts.

The commission charged with policing the $600 trillion market of 
derivatives transactions is surveying industry for systems that can 
collect evidence in the field and in the lab, so ideally, the equipment 
would not rely on a PC, according to an Oct. 19 sources sought notice. 
CFTC already uses extraction tools that work on specific phone models 
such as the Apple-compatible BlackLight system, but it now wants a 
"comprehensive solution" that can copy files from any wireless model.

Currently, handheld mobile forensics field kits that don't require a 
laptop cost between $8,000 and $15,000, according to Darren R. Hayes, a 
computer information systems program chairman at Pace University. The 
school was recently awarded a Defense Department grant for work on 
mobile forensics. He estimates the type of device CFTC needs would cost 
roughly $20,000.

[...]


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