By Cory Doctorow | Boing Boing [1]
Apple apparently has the power to decrypt iPhone storage in response to law-enforcement requests, though they wonât say how. Google can remotely âreset the passwordâ for a phone for cops, too:
Last year, leaked training materials prepared by the Sacramento sheriffâs office included a form that would require Apple to âassist law enforcement agentsâ with âbypassing the cell phone userâs passcode so that the agents may search the iPhone.â Google takes a more privacy-protective approach: it âresets the password and further provides the reset password to law enforcement,â the materials say, which has the side effect of notifying the user that his or her cell phone has been compromised.Ginger Colbrun, ATFâs public affairs chief, told CNET that âATF cannot discuss specifics of ongoing investigations or litigation. ATF follows federal law and DOJ/department-wide policy on access to all communication devices.â
â¦The ATFâs Maynard said in an affidavit for the Kentucky case that Apple âhas the capabilities to bypass the security softwareâ and âdownload the contents of the phone to an external memory device.â Chang, the Apple legal specialist, told him that âonce the Apple analyst bypasses the passcode, the data will be downloaded onto a USB external driveâ and delivered to the ATF.
Itâs not clear whether that means Apple has created a backdoor for police â" which has been the topic of speculation in the past â" whether the company has custom hardware thatâs faster at decryption, or whether it simply is more skilled at using the same procedures available to the government. Apple declined to discuss its law enforcement policies when contacted this week by CNET.
Links
- ^ Boing Boing (boingboing.net)
- ^ Read Full Article (boingboing.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment