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Details of iOS and Android Device Encryption
swillden writes: There's been a lot of discussion of what, exactly, is meant by the Apple announcement about iOS8 device encryption, and the subsequent announcement by Google that Android L will enable encryption by default. Two security researchers tackled these questions in blog posts:
Matthew Green tackled iOS encryption, concluding that the change really boils down to applying the existing iOS encryption methods to more data. He also reviews the iOS approach, which uses Apple's "Secure Enclave" chip as the basis for the encryption and guesses at how it is that Apple can say it's unable to decrypt the devices. He concludes, with some clarification from a commenter, that Apple really can't (unless you use a weak password which can be brute-forced, and even then it's hard).
Nikolay Elenkov looks into the preview release of Android "L." He finds that not only has Google turned encryption on by default, but appears to have incorporated hardware-based security as well, to make it impossible (or at least much more difficult) to perform brute force password searches off-device.
Matthew Green tackled iOS encryption, concluding that the change really boils down to applying the existing iOS encryption methods to more data. He also reviews the iOS approach, which uses Apple's "Secure Enclave" chip as the basis for the encryption and guesses at how it is that Apple can say it's unable to decrypt the devices. He concludes, with some clarification from a commenter, that Apple really can't (unless you use a weak password which can be brute-forced, and even then it's hard).
Nikolay Elenkov looks into the preview release of Android "L." He finds that not only has Google turned encryption on by default, but appears to have incorporated hardware-based security as well, to make it impossible (or at least much more difficult) to perform brute force password searches off-device.
for me, and I think for a lot of /. readers, the biggest issue is comparing a solution that currently exists to vaporware that may exist in the future. The iOS solution is already implemented in the new OS which is on 50%+ of all iDevices after just one week. In contrast, Google's solution is promised for the next version of Android which will be released on TBD. This version will be used by new devices but likely trickle back to just a small percentage of old devices.
As a community we've always been skeptical of vaporware, especially when a lagging company announces vaporware in response to an innovator releasing a tangible product. Can we hold android to this standard?
Presumably, the apps on the phone have access to the encrypted data on the phone, right? So there's a simple solution. The user is happily using their iWhatever. The government sends a Nation Security letter to Apple forcing them to put a backdoor into the phone of the target, such that this app can read whatever data it wants on the phone. So when the user boots up his/her phone, and enters the password, the rougue app should be able to read all the data on the phone.
Can anyone tell me why this WOULDN'T work?
Because National Security Letters cannot be used for that. They can only be used by the FBI to demand the handing over of data in the possession of or passing through the control of the receiver, not the performance of actions (and how the data is produced is up to the company receiving the NSL, not the FBI).
Now what is in the Cloud is a different matter since Apple would have access to that, though again it may be encrypted with a key only the iDevice possesses so Apple wouldn't be able to decrypt it for the FBI.
Thank you for your open response. A Q that you may have addressed elsewhere in the thread: How can Google put out a security solution that relies on a hardware feature, when it has minimal influence on the hardware designs? Does this mean that encryption will work *if* compatible hardware is provided, and if it's not provided the coverage is much weaker? Will the user be informed of this? On what percentage of devices is it expected to have the needed hardware?
kthx.