Apple will no longer unlock most iPhones, iPads for police, even with search warrants

[helmuth_hubener]

Here's some good news for you guys for a change.


By Craig Timberg September 18

Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information.

The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked its latest encryption in a way that prevents the company — or anyone but the device’s owner — from gaining access to the vast troves of user data typically stored on smartphones or tablet computers.

“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data,” Apple said on its Web site. “So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.”

Read the whole article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2014/09/17/2612af58-3ed2-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html

[jllundqu]

I.

Call.

Complete.

Bull.

Shit.

[jllundqu]

Apple and all the other tech companies will bend over backwards for big brother... this is just a PR stunt from Snowden's leaks. They have backdoors built in for "national security" I'm sure.

[specsaregood]

./

[helmuth_hubener]

Apple and all the other tech companies will bend over backwards for big brother... this is just a PR stunt from Snowden's leaks. They have backdoors built in for "national security" I'm sure. As someone with some bit of technical knowledge of how iOS works, let me tell you my opinion: it is not a stunt. There are no secret backdoors. iOS uses whole-disk encryption, and has for some time -- since I believe the 3GS and iOS4. It uses solid, strong, AES-based encryption. If you don't believe that, feel free to just check the source code and see what you think:

http://opensource.apple.com/source/Security/Security-55471.14.8/

I appreciate your skepticism, and it is healthy. Security is a complex thing, and no protection is perfect. In this case this is a genuinely good thing. It is a genuine step forward for privacy and any person with some technological expertise in the field and the specifics of this case can confirm that for you.

There are still ways around the security, for sure. There always are. But Apple will no longer have the key to your data on your device, and it will thus no longer have the ability to decrpyt that device -- whether for the NSA or police or whomever. It simply will not be able to. That is a real step forward.

A couple main ways you could still be compromised:

iCloud. It is still vulnerable, unfortunately.

If the government agent also gains access to an unencrypted computer which has been linked to the iPad, iPod or iPhone for syncing iTunes, etc., they can get some data (though not e-mail and other DPSed data). You can see why this would be the case, although even here there are caveats. If you power off the iOS device before the agent obtains it, no information can be obtained even if they have the linked computer. And of course if the computer is locked and encrypted, the attack is not possible. You can read more here:

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/apple-iphone-security/

[CPUd]

SpiderOak and LastPass use a similar method, what they call a Zero-Knowledge Policy. Whatever you store on their servers is transmitted in encrypted form, so even if they are forced to turn over your data, it would be encrypted. They do not store keys- you only decrypt the data when it is on your machine. The downside to this method is if you lose your key, your data is unrecoverable.

[satchelmcqueen]

i dont think this is true. i hope they prove this to be true.