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Despite cries of "responsible encryption", numerous law enforcement agencies are cracking into iPhones using a box called "GrayKey". Even the latest iPhones may be affected:
FBI Director Christopher Wray recently said that law enforcement agencies are "increasingly unable to access" evidence stored on encrypted devices. Wray is not telling the whole truth.
Police forces and federal agencies around the country have bought relatively cheap tools to unlock up-to-date iPhones and bypass their encryption, according to a Motherboard investigation based on several caches of internal agency documents, online records, and conversations with law enforcement officials. Many of the documents were obtained by Motherboard using public records requests.
[...] "It demonstrates that even state and local police do have access to this data in many situations," Matthew Green, an assistant professor and cryptographer at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, told Motherboard in a Twitter message. "This seems to contradict what the FBI is saying about their inability to access these phones."
As part of the investigation, Motherboard found:
- Regional police forces, such as the Maryland State Police and Indiana State Police, are procuring a technology called 'GrayKey' which can break into iPhones, including the iPhone X running the latest operating system iOS 11.
- Local police forces, including Miami-Dade County Police, have also indicated that they may have bought the equipment.
- Other forces, including the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, have seemingly not bought GrayKey, but have received quotations from the company selling the technology, called Grayshift.
- Emails show the Secret Service is planning to buy at least half a dozen GrayKey boxes to unlock iPhones.
- The State Department has already bought the technology, and the Drug Enforcement Administration is interested in doing so.
See also: FBI Refuses to Say Whether It Bought iPhone Unlocking Tech 'GrayKey'
Also at Engadget and AppleInsider.
Related: U.S. Legislators Trying to Weaken Encryption Yet Again
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @08:23PM (3 children)
This is something we all need when Apple won't help us break into our own phone when we forget the code and want to reset it. As long as we all have access to the same tools, I am not against their use. Technology can be a great equalizer if we want it to be. Instead, everybody tries to get the advantage, when the objective should be to take it away.
Si tu fumas yo puedo fumar tambien
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @12:55AM (2 children)
I'm in favor of this tool as well. When I steal someone's phone this will make it much easier to get access to all their info, pics, etc. Then I can take what I want, wipe the phone and sell it on the street.
I also like this tool because I can get access to a phone and plant whatever evidence I want.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday April 14 2018, @01:49AM
I'm treating my smart phone more and more as dumb phone. I have barely any apps on it at all, Signal trims all text message threads at 25 messages. All they'll get off me is my recent call and text history, the last thing I calculated in the calculator, and whatever book I'm listening to currently from Audible, although I'm tempted to dig up my old ipod and go back to listening to my audiobooks that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @06:02AM
Bla bla bla... And a butter knife can be used to kill a guy. What's yer point?