First is a technical explanation of the Boot Loader and how whispercore (WhisperYAFFS) encrypts the data partition at boot time.

https://github.com/WhisperSystems/WhisperYAFFS/wiki

Some background on YAFFS

http://www.yaffs.net/yaffs-nand-specific-flash-file-system-introductory-article

and some source code for you…

https://github.com/WhisperSystems/WhisperYAFFS

Second, an overview of AES (the encryption scheme)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

and a theoretical “brute force” analysis.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4JMZAQAAIAAJ&q=isbn:1565925203&dq=isbn:1565925203&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p2hlT46wIYPksQLwpIW2Dw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA

(apply to DES, but still a good read)

Third, an analyses of the only plausible attack method, Evil Maid, and how it relates to the Boot Loader and Whispercore. (note the vonerabilty only apples to the old model Nexus phone)

 http://www.defreez.com/articles/android-evilmaid.html

and yes, it would appear that Whisper System has taken the links offline after the Twitter buyout, however if you want it, it can be found. 

I don’t trust anything unless I can see the source for myself… ;)

I went through items in a lost wallet in detail looking for a way to track down the owner. I was hoping to return it personally, but none of the phone numbers led anywhere. I took it to the Tokyo police station. It was a bit of a disappointment.

Also, what of this dilemma:  leave it there (because I am honest) and hope that the owner returns… but what if the next person who comes along is not the owner and is less “honest” than me?  And, because I didn’t act, that person shops online or peeks at corporate data or calls Italy for hours.  :(

Now I want to go back in the house and lock all of the doors.

if it’s beer, then emily dickinson gave the bartender that returned the phone a case of beer. isn’t it ironic?

Help us all, symantec!

Didn’t get any thanks, though, apart from smug satisfaction. Or when I found a plastic bag with airline tickets and other trip paperwork in a taxi late one night in London. I found a contact number and personally took the bag to central London and handed it in at the person’s office.

Those were both valuable items. Last year I found a notebook and map on the steps of a London double-decker bus, obviously dropped by someone who had recently got off. No actual address of owner so I snooped through the book looking for possible contacts – it was a sort of journal and notes of phone numbers of shops and theatre box offices and whatnot. Eventually I found a possible name, got in touch with her, who was a friend of a friend of the owner, and eventually I got a message with an address in Canada. I sent the items off and got a small book of paintings by a Canadian artist in return as thanks.

Within about an hour and a half of handing over my passport the police rang me at work to say someone had found it and handed it in, and I was able to collect it and go back round to the travel agent and inform them of the situation before their own courier – who hadn’t noticed the loss till he got to London, obviously – told them.

Not that it would actually be difficult to figure out who to call if you can access the call log, which is right there if you bring up the phone app.

Unless the phone is password protected, of course, which is certainly a dilemma :)

This setup looks like it’s straight out of a 1980s sitcom where people shop at “Grocery” for “Beer” (Both labelled exactly like that).

I believe you’re thinking of Repo Man :)

edit: commenters below beat me to it :)