June 24, 2011, 1:23 PM —
flickr/Perfecto Insecto
The interesting thing about the claim by hactivist/attention-whore LulzSec's hack of the Arizona state police isn't the successful breach, or even that the documents it posted include way more files marked as secret than you'd expect in an honest state agency.
It's not even that LulzSec posted the names and home addresses of top Arizona law-enforcement officials.
It's how nervous those officials about iPhone apps that could help citizens avoid speed traps, secretly record encounters with police officers or erase themselves after being confiscated by police.
[Also see: We owe LulzSec a 'thank you']
A document labeled "iphone apps- used against officers.doc" front-line officers encourages officers making an arrest to search for iPhones or other smartphones and look specifically to see what apps are running on them.
Specifically the document warns that an app called Cop Recorder can be activated while the phone is in a suspect's pocket to record what happens during an arrest, then upload the audio to a network server beyond the officer's reach.
The document, picked out of the background noise by Time's TechLand, is classified as "Law Enforcement Sensitive," meaning it shouldn't be distributed outside the DPS – Arizona's state umbrella agency for law enforcement. (The torrent for the docs is here; LulzSec's announcement about it is here.)
Another document warned about remote-wipe capabilities in iOS v. 3, and recommends arresting officers isolate phones from radio signals in a Farraday bag or "some other nickel, copper and silver plated storage container (see figure 3). The device must be protected from any wireless connection/radio signal even throughout the forensic imaging process."
