Any thoughts on the forensic impact of the recently-developed software highlighted at the following link?
It does seem like an interesting idea, but from an implementation perspective, I'm not sure it will work in the long run, or catch on.
"Vanish was released today as a free, open-source tool that works with the Firefox browser. To work, both the sender and the recipient must have installed the tool. "
Like the article says, it's meant for comms between two trusted parties.
However, this does bring memory analysis into the spotlight, as well. It would be interesting to see what was still available in memory on the system, particularly if this sort of thing is somehow used maliciously.
Overall, I don't see a significant impact on computer forensics, but I do see where this might affect discovery in legal cases.
Reminds me a bit about an email-service that made it possible to destroy sent messages (at least that's what the marketeers said. The messages were actually saved on a seperate server, the email message just pointed to the message).
The examples the researchers give (facebook, lost cellphones) have more to do with ownership of information and search engine privacy-rules.
I agree that the impact on forensics won't be that high. If you anticipate this, you can even run something like fekruna (http//
What would be cool, would be a feature that would wipe your information on-demand, wherever it would be.
Oh, and somehow most people (including a lot of subjects) do not want their data to get lost after a few hours, they just want to get rid of it when they are under investigation 😉
Roland
Interesting…no other thoughts, even from the OP…
Conceptually I think it is very interesting but there seems to be some infrastructure requirements that could be turned of on an enterprise level as it also looks as if you need to have open access to p2p networks (as well as the ability to execute on clients). Agreed on the memory as it seems to create the encrypted message in memory before sending.
If I may go WAY off-topic 😯 , my grandmother used to say that if you don't want to get caught in doing something not "appropriate", the safer way is to NOT doing that thing.
What happened before e-mail was invented?
You wrote a letter (on paper), that letter may have been
lost or stolen in the mail office or along the path from "point A to B"
stolen in the mailbox of adressee
stolen from the adressee (after he read it)
thrown away by the adressee and found by a passer by
…
…
etc.
etc.
I seem not able to remember that the above ever created that much a problem….
jaclaz
jaclaz wrote
What happened before e-mail was invented?
You wrote a letter (on paper), that letter may have been
The good old days…one would just stroll to the grocer, tearing off a piece of the letter here and there, randomly distributing the remnants en route…
douglasbrush wrote
…some infrastructure requirements that could be turned of on an enterprise level as it also looks as if you need to have open access to p2p networks (as well as the ability to execute on clients).
I agree. I think network security controls would probably trump the practical use of this software. As for forensic impact, I suspect the only data that could be reasonably assembled would be extracted from the origination point.
Interesting comments, so far. Thank you.
The good old days…one would just stroll to the grocer, tearing off a piece of the letter here and there, randomly distributing the remnants en route…
Yep, good ol' days, when you used to get a very steep fine when you littered the public streets…. wink
jaclaz
I had a blanket parade permit…confetti inclusive… wink