iPod: Criminal Tool

A student at Clay High School in Oregon, Ohio is accused of hacking into school personnel and student files and transferring private information to his iPod. According to the Toledo Blade, the high school junior was charged with unauthorized use of a computer. He was also charged with possessing a criminal tool, his iPod, since it was used in the crime.

An iPod can do more than play music. One of an iPod's many functions is that it can be used like an external hard drive or flash drive by putting it into Disk Mode. A computer doesn't even need iTunes on it for the iPod to show up on the desktop (Mac) or in MyComputer (Windows). Furthermore, you don't even need iTunes to enable Disk Mode. Here are instructions on how to force your iPod into Disk Mode without activating it through iTunes.

Clay High School's student connected his iPod (with Disk Mode enabled) to the USB port of the school's computer. He could then copy or save files into his iPod's memory. Those same files could then be copied to another computer. Fortunately, the iPod with sensitive data was confiscated the same day it was used in Oregon, Ohio's crime.