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posted by janrinok on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the you-have-no-secrets dept.

GrayShift is a new company that promises to unlock even iPhones running the latest version of iOS for a relatively cheap price.

In a sign of how hacking technology often trickles down from more well-funded federal agencies to local bodies, at least one regional police department has already signed up for GrayShift's services, according to documents and emails obtained by Motherboard.

As Forbes reported on Monday, GrayShift is an American company which appears to be run by an ex-Apple security engineer and others who have long held contracts with intelligence agencies. In its marketing materials, GrayShift offers a tool called GrayKey, an offline version of which costs $30,000 and comes with an unlimited number of uses. For $15,000, customers can instead buy the online version, which grants 300 iPhones unlocks.

This is what the Indiana State Police bought, judging by a purchase order obtained by Motherboard. The document, dated February 21, is for one GrayKey unit costing $500, and a "GrayKey annual license—online—300 uses," for $14,500. The order, and an accompanying request for quotation, indicate the unlocking service was intended for Indiana State Police's cybercrime department. A quotation document emblazoned with GrayShift's logo shows the company gave Indiana State Police a $500 dollar discount for their first year of the service.

Importantly, according to the marketing material cited by Forbes, GrayKey can unlock iPhones running modern versions of Apple's mobile operating system, such as iOS 10 and 11, as well as the most up to date Apple hardware, like the iPhone 8 and X.

Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xw5bqz/documents-prove-local-cops-have-bought-cheap-iphone-cracking-tech


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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday March 11 2018, @02:05PM (1 child)

    by looorg (578) on Sunday March 11 2018, @02:05PM (#650914)

    Why can't people or Apple sue the manufacturer of such equipment or software? It's not like it has any other legitimate purpose.

    Considering that Apple was up in arms when the FBI (or was it some other LEO) wanted help with cracking their way into various phones and devices that they found on terrorists (or suspects or whatever) isn't it a bit odd that Apple would allow some former security employee to open up a business that does just what they did not want to do, or claimed was almost impossible or whatever their argument was. Clearly it was doable since various LEO:s have found other companies to do it for them, so it seems more like that they just didn't want to or they wanted to protect the image of how they stand with their customers on security or some such fantasy. Unless this company, Grayshift, is actually approved by Apple -- after all they won't have to do break into any phones, they can still claim that they are standing by their customers, all while they have a "sanctioned" Apple phone cracking service staffed by former security employees.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:15PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:15PM (#651041) Journal

    Apple can put these companies out of business by changing the OS and plugging the holes. Gut suing them for DMCA violations could be very lucrative.

    Lets wait and see if they do either. If not, we can pretty well deduce who's in bed with these guys.

    --
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