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New York DA Wants Apple, Google To Roll Back Encryption (tomsguide.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. called on Apple and Google to weaken their device encryption, arguing that thousands of crimes remained unsolved because no one can crack into the perpetrators' phones. Vance, speaking at the International Conference on Cyber Security here, said that law enforcement officials did not need an encryption "backdoor," sidestepping a concern of computer-security experts and device makers alike. Instead, Vance said, he only wanted the encryption standards rolled back to the point where the companies themselves can decrypt devices, but police cannot. This situation existed until September 2014, when Apple pushed out iOS 8, which Apple itself cannot decrypt. "Tim Cook was absolutely right when he told his shareholders that the iPhone changed the world," Vance said. "It's changed my world. It's letting criminals conduct their business with the knowledge we can't listen to them."

4 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Morons got government jobs!!! by sentiblue · · Score: 3, Informative

    LOL!!!! Even the FBI Director can't get this after numerous cry-out... What the hell does a DA think he is?

    It's the law enforcement's job to handle the criminals... if they need help, send their people to more technical education. Companies have only one job: To satisfy their customers... and if they can't do that, nobody will buy the stuffs, period!!!

  2. Re:No such thing as Apple-only backdoor by ewibble · · Score: 3, Informative

    The whole thing is an oxymoron

    law enforcement officials did not need an encryption "backdoor," sidestepping a concern of computer-security experts and device makers alike. Instead, Vance said, he only wanted the encryption standards rolled back to the point where the companies themselves can decrypt devices

    Making encryption standards so weak so that the company/person writing the software, can bypass them, is the very definition of a back door.

  3. Well gee darn, officer... by s13g3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Vance said. "It's changed my world. It's letting criminals conduct their business with the knowledge we can't listen to them."

    They can do that in an empty theater, a subway car, a taxi, a sewer... or in simple, pre-arranged, spoken code-phrases you'll have EVEN LESS CHANCE OF CRACKING. So it's "changed your world." Ala, forced you to think about hiring cops capable of doing actual investigative police work? You mean, like, when people used codes the police couldn't crack just 15 years ago, except they were written on paper, or ciphered into the actual text? You mean like when they spoke languages few if any other people spoke? You mean like back in the day when cops were expected to solve crimes with actual police-work, instead of relying on broad, warrantless searches of people's private property and communications with no restraint on the part of the police, who would instead prefer to violate the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold with the use of Stingray devices and the like just to nab an easy collar?

    Frankly, if your only avenue for solving crime is bottomed on your ability to read the contents of people's private messages and cellphones, you should quit because you're an awful police officer with no ability or skill to solve crimes the way our nation of laws intended them to be solved: without violating people's equal rights, all because "but... crime!!1 Terrorism!1! 9/11!!!one" Even if I believed that giving you what you wanted wasn't a civil rights violation and was in the best interests of the public, the fact of the matter is that it would change nothing: the criminals would simply find other means and avenues, and frankly I seriously doubt such access is a relevant factor in even 1 out of 100,000 cases anyway, especially since your record of solving crimes has not improved in the least bit during the periods when you had this access, or since you've started illegally using stingray devices, even though overall crime rates have been on a downward tick for the last couple of decades.

    --
    "Inveniemus Viam Aut Faciemus" 'We will find a way... Or we will make one!' --Hannibal of Carthage
  4. Re:And you shouldn't be.... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1, Informative

    at the expensive our

    at the expense of our

    Is this a new bit of illiteracy, or is it derived from the "intensive purposes" illiteracy?

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"