[ale] A response to Apple v DoJ

[DJ-Pfulio]

On 02/25/2016 08:02 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> We need a dead man switch app. After X days/hours/time of disuse, the app wipes
> the user content with a secure wipe. 

Sounds good, until ...

Once I was going on an overseas trip for 2+ weeks and in a big hurry. I was
on-time, but some things happened due to another person which were out of my
control and I was late getting to the airport at 5:30am. Still dark outside.
Left my N800 on the passenger seat as I hurried to get my bags to the shuttle.
All the trip info was in that device. Mainly hotels, but contacts, etc ...
inside the airport, it became clear that I'd left it somewhere - knew I had it
in the car because I'd used the GPS, but it wasn't in my carry-on. Could have
been on the car roof for all I knew.

Finding the hotel was fun. I didn't make the reservations and Hong Kong is a big
place.
---
A few years later, traveling with a buddy, he had 2 unlocked, smartphones,
stolen. First he didn't feel a thing and didn't notice it for at least an hour.
 2nd was stolen the next day while sitting **inside** a restaurant.  Tracked
both of those phones - Central Africa and Indonesia - so no way to blacklist
those phones from the networks.

We spend the next 8 hrs canceling credit cards, changing account passwords,
calling bank fraud departments in the USA and filing police reports.
---

So ... what this taught me.

a) always carry paper with critical details on it. Contacts, hotels, CC banks,
insurance, flights, embassy addresses

b) always encrypt any portable devices. The hassle of decryption for thieves
means your data AND contacts

I'm more inclined to have a hidden app on the device that if not disabled within
2 minutes of unlock, wipes the device. Is that a dead man switch?

Gotta wonder how many people have full, complete, encrypted, backups of their
smart-phones?  Mine is over 3 months old (I use adb).