ie8 fix
madison

Zero Day

Ryan Naraine, Emil Protalinski and Dancho Danchev

McCain sells off unwiped campaign BlackBerry to reporter for $20

By | December 12, 2008, 12:52pm PST

A reporter picked up a used BlackBerry in the massive liquidation of the McCain campaign holdings. It turns out that someone forgot to wipe the contents of the Blackberry’s memory.

When we charged them up in the newsroom, we found one of the $20 Blackberry phones contained more than 50 phone numbers for people connected with the McCain-Palin campaign, as well as hundreds of emails from early September until a few days after election night.

Many security researchers choose to prognosticate about malware as being the next big threat vector for mobile devices. Until data retention policies become ubiquitous and can guarantee 100% enforceability, data leakage along these lines will be the primary information security threat centered for mobile systems.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Adam J. O'Donnell, Ph.D. is an R&D engineer who has focused on computer security since 2000.

Disclosure

Adam O'Donnell

Adam J. O’Donnell currently works for Cloudmark, a messaging security company whose clients include the majority of the Tier 1 customer-facing service providers as well as mobile carriers and social networks. He serves on the advisory committee for the SOURCE Security Conference, as well as several conference technical program committees. Many of his close friends work in the security industry, and he will disclose those relationships as he deems it necessary.

Biography

Adam O'Donnell

Adam J. O'Donnell, Ph.D. is an R&D engineer who has focused on computer security since 2000. He currently is the Director of Emerging Technologies at Cloudmark, a messaging security company located in San Francisco.

Adam early on mastered the art of writing in complete sentences, using both hands and one foot. Later, he learned to do so with each individually. After fourteen years of apprenticeship in the mist-covered hills of central Nepal, Dr. O'Donnell emerged an unparalleled digital warrior and in desperate need of a anti-fungal wash.

Approaching both life and enterprise security with the verve of a particular capuchin, he is respected the world over as an observer of all he sees. Adam's dry blade of analysis will sever the hard candy shell surrounding most technical security concepts, and significantly goo-ify the remaining so as to be consumable in small bites with sufficiently large servings of digestive aids. Just what the doctor ordered.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
8
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: McCain sells off unwiped campaign blackberry to reporter for $20
birumut Updated - 4th May 2011
Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
seslisohbet seslichat
0 Votes
+ -
Well, here's hoping...
TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827 12th Dec 2008
...they wipe it themselves. Yes, stupid move on someone's part, but let's not exploit it for thousands of $s, or post private stuff, etc. Just do the right thing, delete it all.

Given the benefit of the doubt (hope they will) until and unless we start seeing meaningless emails posted throughout the web.

TripleII
0 Votes
+ -
And why is this a story?
Dorkyman 12th Dec 2008
Gosh, I'll bet the Obama people have never done something like that.

The fact that the story is being reported here at all seems to be saying, "Boy, are those McCain people idiots!" In any event, I would think an Obama device would be far more useful to a buyer at this stage. If I had bought one and found contemporaneous lists of people in power, maybe I wouldn't report it.

If you ever had a doubt that a story is being fair or unfair to one side or the other, just do a simple mind trick: switch the party and read the story again. Then ask yourself, does it make sense that the story is being reported at all, and are they being even-handed in their coverage?
0 Votes
+ -
Well, isn't that curious....
MGP2 12th Dec 2008
If I had bought one and found contemporaneous lists of people in power, maybe I wouldn't report it.

Maybe? Well, I guess I'll give you credit for admitting you're just as prone to ethical lapses as the next person.

If you ever have a doubt that a person posting a talkback is being fair or unfair....
0 Votes
+ -
What MGP2 said
AndyCee 13th Dec 2008
The story isn't the story - it's used to highlight a point:

data leakage along these lines will be the primary information security threat centered for mobile systems.

How do you propose journalists be "even-handed" for this? Steal Obama's blackberry and discuss data-theft?
0 Votes
+ -
Fair = reporting everyone's mistake.
T1Oracle 14th Dec 2008
This was McCain's and it was pretty foolish. Cry a river. :\
0 Votes
+ -
McCain Morons
croberts 14th Dec 2008
What kind of moron would authorize the sale of a potentially sensitive device to recoup $20?

Seriously.

That blackberry should have been tossed into a wood chipper and destroyed.

Case close. End of story.
0 Votes
+ -
Seems like no password or easy password on device
deaf_e_kate Updated - 15th Dec 2008
as keying in a wrong password 10 times automatically wipes it. Not a difficult task
Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
seslisohbet seslichat

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix