Pod Snatching

IPods are everywhere. Look around the gym, the office, or the subway, and you’ll see one of the 15 million now in use around the world. The portable music players are so ubiquitous, thieves are using them to hide stolen goods in plain sight. How? Boasting disk drives as large as 60 gigabytes, iPods can ...

IPods are everywhere. Look around the gym, the office, or the subway, and you'll see one of the 15 million now in use around the world. The portable music players are so ubiquitous, thieves are using them to hide stolen goods in plain sight. How? Boasting disk drives as large as 60 gigabytes, iPods can hold huge amounts of data (not just music files). So thieves use them to store and transport illicit material. Paul Carratu, a fraud consultant, recently unearthed a case in which employees at a British recruitment firm used iPods to steal a valuable client database. Derrick Donnelly, a forensic technology advisor to police forces, has seen child pornographers use iPods to store photos. So far, it appears cops aren't catching on. Asked how the trend is being combated, an FBI spokesman said only that the agency is hip to the "concept" that iPods have crooked applications. The question is whether they will catch up, before criminals co-opt the world's newest cultural icon.

IPods are everywhere. Look around the gym, the office, or the subway, and you’ll see one of the 15 million now in use around the world. The portable music players are so ubiquitous, thieves are using them to hide stolen goods in plain sight. How? Boasting disk drives as large as 60 gigabytes, iPods can hold huge amounts of data (not just music files). So thieves use them to store and transport illicit material. Paul Carratu, a fraud consultant, recently unearthed a case in which employees at a British recruitment firm used iPods to steal a valuable client database. Derrick Donnelly, a forensic technology advisor to police forces, has seen child pornographers use iPods to store photos. So far, it appears cops aren’t catching on. Asked how the trend is being combated, an FBI spokesman said only that the agency is hip to the "concept" that iPods have crooked applications. The question is whether they will catch up, before criminals co-opt the world’s newest cultural icon.

Prerna Mankad is a researcher at Foreign Policy.

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