An article today in the Wall Street Journal describes the continuous battle between law enforcement and Apple. Apple seems to be the only major phone maker playing the game. It says security is important and being able to crack the iPhone security for law enforcement is a threat to every person who owns an iPhone. So, as a user, I like that. As a former law enforcement person, I don't like it, so I am conflicted. Welcome to the club.
The story is about Greyshift LLC, a company that makes an iPhone cracker. You remember the FBI trying to do the same thing by bringing Apple into court, mainly because they weren't willing to do the work to crack it themselves. They claim to have gotten an Israeli company to do it for them, at a cost of around $1million. That is outrageous, as the article points out. They overpaid.
Apple is now prepared to make that harder by not allowing use of the external interface after the phone password has been tried too often, and one hour has passed. More than a few customers are not going to like that in the end, but Apple is thinking they will get over it. This will stop recovery by services that can do it with boxes like Greyshift makes, but it will stop legitimate efforts to recover my stuff when I get locked out.
Before you feel sorry for the good guys (you have to figure out who that is), this game has been going on for ages, and nobody ever wins. Greyshift is not going to shrivel up and go away because Apple makes it harder. They will find a different route in. Law Enforcement is not going to quit hacking phones to get the information that is in them, and they will get help wherever they can. Apple can only do so much, and believe me, they are not going to make a tamper-proof phone in my lifetime. I give them credit for trying, but I give Greyshift the same credit. Free enterprise is really something.
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