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posted by mrpg on Tuesday November 21 2017, @01:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the isn't-it-easier-to-ask-the-nsa? dept.

The Texas Rangers have served Apple a warrant for iPhone and iCloud data connected to the recent mass shooter Devin Patrick Kelley. However, it is unknown whether Kelley actually used iCloud to store data, and unlikely that Apple will be able or willing to help unlock the iPhone:

Texas Rangers investigating the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs have served a search warrant on Silicon Valley giant Apple Inc. and are seeking digital photos, messages, documents and other types of data that might have been stored by gunman Devin Patrick Kelley, who was found with an iPhone after he killed himself.

Court records obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show Texas Ranger Kevin Wright obtained search warrants on Nov. 9 for files stored on Kelley's iPhone, a second mobile phone found near his body and for files stored in Kelley's iCloud account — Apple's digital archive that can sync iPhone files.

The iCloud feature is an optional service. Obtaining such records, if they exist, directly from Apple could aid authorities investigating the worst mass shooting in modern Texas history. Apple's policy regarding iCloud content states that material may be provided to law enforcement agencies if they obtain search warrants.

In addition, the FBI may have already screwed it up.

Also at Engadget, BGR, and Fast Company.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday November 21 2017, @02:58AM

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday November 21 2017, @02:58AM (#599496) Journal

    Now they want Apple to spend bookoo bux to hack into his phone.

    I suspect they don't expect to gather any information from the phone or iCloud.
    They have never gathered any useful sole-source information from a phone. They have already had more data via other means. (Pen registers, phone records, text message logs, Tower tracks, GPS logs on telco servers).

    The idea is that if they can force Apple to make it easy (by forcing them to bear the costs) encrypted phones will disappear.
    Of course that makes it easier to plant data too.

    To this day they are utterly clueless about the Las Vegas shooter's motives or movements. If they had his phone, they wouldn't find anything there either. The Texas guy was a walking powder keg, there will be nothing on his phone either. No elaborate plans. No accomplices. Nobody else to arrest (except in the AirForce).

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