Motherboard Built a Database of Over 500 iPhones Cops Have Tried To Unlock (vice.com) 16
"Motherboard built and analyzed a database of over 500 iPhones seized by law enforcement," writes Slashdot reader em1ly. "It's a deep dive into the ongoing "Going Dark" conversation." Here's an excerpt from the report: Most of all, the records compiled by Motherboard show that the capability to unlock iPhones is a fluid issue, with an ebb and flow of law enforcement sometimes being able to access devices and others not. The data solidifies that some law enforcement officials do have trouble accessing data stored on iPhones. But ultimately, our findings lead experts to circle back to the fundamental policy question: should law enforcement have guaranteed access to iPhones, with the trade-offs in iPhone security that come with that?
Out of 516 analyzed cases, 295 were marked as executed. Officials from the FBI, DEA, DHS, Homeland Security and Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were able to extract data from iPhones in investigations ranging from arson, to child exploitation, to drug trafficking. And investigators executed warrants against modern iPhones, not just older models. In some cases, investigators obtained photos, text messages, call records, browsing data, cookies, and location data from seized iPhones. Some executed search warrants explicitly mention the type of extraction performed, such as so-called "Logical" or "Advanced Logical" extraction. The latter is a term with a meaning that varies between different phone data extraction companies, but generally it relates to creating a device backup as iTunes does normally and obtaining some more data on top of that, Vladimir Katalov, the CEO of iOS forensics firm Elcomsoft, told Motherboard. Katalov said those backups can contain the sorts of pieces of data that investigators obtained, and is available to all models of iPhone.
Out of 516 analyzed cases, 295 were marked as executed. Officials from the FBI, DEA, DHS, Homeland Security and Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were able to extract data from iPhones in investigations ranging from arson, to child exploitation, to drug trafficking. And investigators executed warrants against modern iPhones, not just older models. In some cases, investigators obtained photos, text messages, call records, browsing data, cookies, and location data from seized iPhones. Some executed search warrants explicitly mention the type of extraction performed, such as so-called "Logical" or "Advanced Logical" extraction. The latter is a term with a meaning that varies between different phone data extraction companies, but generally it relates to creating a device backup as iTunes does normally and obtaining some more data on top of that, Vladimir Katalov, the CEO of iOS forensics firm Elcomsoft, told Motherboard. Katalov said those backups can contain the sorts of pieces of data that investigators obtained, and is available to all models of iPhone.
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How can they legally access the device? I thought the DMCA and EULAs prevented any unauthorized access.
I think a warrant trumps those.
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Or a warrant-free Patriot Act order, or any of the relevant tools recently published in the "Vault 7" files copied from the CIA's list of technology hacks. See https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/... [wikileaks.org] .
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those rules and their ultrabroad nets are for peasants, silly goose
Why iPhones specifically? (Score:1)
Re:Why iPhones specifically? (Score:4, Informative)
Unless you purchased a recent Android, they're not necessarily encrypted. Android didn't enforce until v6/7 and even then wouldn't enable encryption if your device wasn't fast enough to handle it. Only models over the last few years are required and capable to support encryption, plenty of bargain bin phones simply don't have it.
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Unless you purchased a recent Android, they're not necessarily encrypted. Android didn't enforce until v6/7 and even then wouldn't enable encryption if your device wasn't fast enough to handle it. Only models over the last few years are required and capable to support encryption, plenty of bargain bin phones simply don't have it.
At my last job, we were required to have our phone encrypted if connecting to the companies wifi. It was just sort of assumed you could do that, and honestly I don't remember anyone having an issue. It was a tech company, and only people on the sales team had iPhones, from what I remember. As for Android 6 and 7, you're talking about 4+ years ago.
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The problem is, with Android, you're never quite sure if the OEM actually implemented it in a reasonably secure way - it may claim encrypted but not actually do an
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> Given some OEMs have issued "security updates" that did nothing but update the date of the security update, I would't trust any phone other than Google's Pixel line.
> And Android 6/7 are still being sold with new phones today - it usually takes 1-2 years before flagships adopt the latest Androids, and the midrange and budget phones usually get what were the flagships of the past.
This is why you buy a Android ONE phone, I bought my Nokia 6.1 in 2018 for $229, it had Android 8, it got 9 and now 10, a
And here is the database of Android phones (Score:2)
Database of Android phones that Police couldn't unluck: [null]
Based on the size of those 2 databases, I know which phone I'm going to pick.