Law enforcement has a love-hate relationship with the iPhone. Features like Activation Lock have helped crack down on smartphone thefts, but there’s always the lurking threat of someone asking Siri about 9/11 and accidentally dialling 911 in the process.
The latest issue police are butting heads with Apple about relates to the company’s late-2014 decision to no longer maintain decryption keys which let Apple unlock iOS 8 devices for police as part of active investigations.
And New York’s cops aren’t happy about it!
In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI, Justice Department and Manhattan DA’s office all asked Congress to force Apple (and other companies which offer a similar block on user data) to add backdoors designed specifically for law enforcement.
Although he wasn’t able to provide one example of an investigation that Apple’s decision has blocked from moving forward, New York district attorney Cyrus Vance said that Manhattan DA’s office has encountered 74 iPhones which were locked out to law enforcement investigations.
Vance did give an example of previous shooting that would be impossible to solve today — whereby a shooting victim recorded footage of his assailant using an iPhone running iOS 6. Following the victim’s death, the murderer was convicted due to the fact that police could retrieve the video.
“If that had been iOS 8, when the phone dropped, the passcode would have died with its user,” Vance told the hearing.
This report follows shortly after FBI director James Comey posted an open letter online in which he argued that the kind of strong encryption seen on the iPhone could potentially aid terrorist groups such as ISIS.
“My job is to try to keep people safe,” Comey wrote. “In universal strong encryption, I see something that is with us already and growing every day that will inexorably affect my ability to do that job.”
“None of us should accept that the government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information. This is a basic human right. We all have a right to privacy. We shouldn’t give it up. We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details.”
In May, Apple signed an open letter to President Obama asking him to reject anti-encryption proposals. Last month, Apple was one of nine different companies to be given the full five stars in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) “Who Has Your Back?” privacy report.
I think it’s safe to say that we haven’t heard the end of this story!
Source: Wired
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
16 responses to “iPhone’s encryption is so good, not even cops can get past it”
“the murder was convicted”
Murderer.
So what did cops have before iPhones were invented?
They still had to do their jobs. Nothing has changed.
Then they had to get off their chairs and talk to people and use deductive reasoning and hard skills. Now they can push a button and watch their cat videos on youtube.
They can use Their dead fingers to diable Touch ID :P
Assuming they find both the phone and the relevant finger before 24 hours have passed and/or the battery drains. And assuming they think to do that.
No, Touch ID is biometric, it requires a functioning circulatory system to operate.
Under no circumstances should Apple cave to law enforcements demands.
The reason they want to be able to jump the encryption is so they an delete the recordings they don’t want to have become public evidence. Usually of THEM doing what they ought not to be doing. And the data can be remotely retrieved from he phone by the owner through iCloud and then used against them.
Do use the cops own BS against them,”What have you got to hide, cops?”
Or law enforcement could actually do their jobs and investigate…
Wait isn’t there only 10,000 combination to the passcode?
Yes, but after a few wrong guesses the phone locks up for 5 minutes. Then if you mess up a few more times it locks up for an hour. You can’t just keep randomly trying number combos.
Takes decades to try them all.
This can be simple or this can be REAL hard given who’s in the conversation…. Comey and his gang of luddites try to gang up on the clue-free in the US congress (would not be hard to find hundreds of them), and try in one pass get them to stomp their feet and pop a vein in their necks and try to make Apple do something…. Good luck with that.. When asked to produce ONE EXAMPLE of when Apple’s technology has hampered an FBI initiative… CRICKETS.
Buh…Bye Comey… When you got something based on FACTS come back to the table, but until then -A M F !!!!
“…and New York Cop’s hate it.”
If I remember correctly, at one point, the NYPD was making public statements for people to not only make sure passcodes were on at all times, but to even upgrade to the new iOS (I think it was 7 at that time) because of the advanced security. How about the NYPD and the FBI stop using scare tactics by throwing around ” we’re stopping the terrorist” and “we’re thawting ISIS plans”, as means to have easy access to private information.
so because they couldn’t get into 74 iPhones, they want a backdoor into the 70+million iPhones… because if you got nothing to hide!
Can’t believe so many people actually fall for this scaremongering crap!
Oh, and before anyone mentions Apple has sold around 700 million, I’m taking US sales since I’m guessing this is the US!
They don’t need phone data to do their job. Just track criminals at home. You can never do a meaningful entirely digital crime. it always touches the real world. Find the crime there and go after it.