Thanks for nothing, Apple, say forensic security chaps

You can't simultaneously have good privacy and easy recovery of data.

It's conflicting goals. And privacy should have precedence.

Felons wanting

felons, would-be felons, always-wanted-to-be-a-felon felons, past felons and future ones, we're all felons, unless proven felons.

iCloud

If the phones been wiped there'd be no association between the phone and the iCloud account so how exactly would you propose you get at the cloud stored data?? You'd have to know their user id or some other kind of identifiers which if all you have is a blank phone isn't much help. Sure if the "hackers" are the CIA, know who are and could demand Apple hand over the info for person X then they could get at it, fail to see how anyone else could.

Typical Reg

You Reg. You are a card. Apple is too lax on security - bad Apple, naughty Apple. Apple is too tough on security - bad Apple, naughty Apple. And yet you still manage to make a nasty mess of love custard in your pants whenever a new bit of fondleable hardware gets shovelled out of Cupertino.

It's an object lesson in having your cake and eating it. Or, at least, trying to.

agreed.

Seems forensic guys have become lazy :)

I propose all hardware (mobiles, tablets, computers) to have encryption by default and "remote" wipe functionality.

Apple stock better climb now...

as this is the best endorsment of the iPhone's reset feature anyone could ask for.

Yes, thanks Apple!

No seriously, thanks. I'm no Apple fan, but if I wipe a device I don't expect someone to be able to poke around the phone for 30 seconds and recover my data. Apple's device behavior is therefore correct.

Is this an advert?

A wiped phone is a wiped phone.

What has it got to do with encryption?

Off with your finger!

Missing the point?

It is possible to encrypt your data on almost all of the platforms, the difference here is that apple are implementing it by design for everyone with an iPhone. Most people with droid phones simply wouldn't know how or care to encrypt making the lives of people who want your data easier.

Wrong at the start, so the rest is untrustable...

"a factory reset not only wipes data"... no, it does not. Flash is fast, but it's not *that* fast, and there's no need - wiping the key renders all un-wiped data useless, so, no need to wipe it anyhow.

Not entirely accurate

Assuming that (insert TLA here) has a quantum computer then it is entirely possible to reverse Apple's whole device encryption so the problem becomes "how wiped is wiped?"

I've done some experimentation with fried Ipod Touch's which use the same Tosh!ba chips and the data is still assuredly there even after a factory reset until overwritten by the next sync.

Can be retrieved using power extremes, supercooling or reading the memory back in a strong multi-Tesla magnetic field (!)

Also the key is backed up in the same chip that stores the uSSID, MAC address and device ID along with the unique code(s) Apple assign to the device to allow Itunes to sync.

One reason why to avoid "Icloud locked" boards like the Plague, they are totally worthless for spares.