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

Posted by msmash on from the opposing-views dept.

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."

8 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. And you shouldn't be.... by Lord_Rion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You shouldn't be able to listen to them... you shouldn't be able to listen to anyone. Try doing your job the old fashioned way... outsmart them.. stop trying to take short cuts at the expensive our our rights and liberties...

    But hey.. that's just my opinion

    --
    --Hired Net Grunt
    1. Re:And you shouldn't be.... by npslider · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The "bad guys" will still find that classic abandoned warehouse across the train tracks and plot their evil in the veil of darkness. Perhaps we should require spotlights and mandatory cameras over every square inch of the planet too?

    2. Re:And you shouldn't be.... by Hylandr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      at the expense of ideal security.

      *Having a backdoor into any encryption is not ideal security*, as that back door, or weak encryption is equally, if not more so, vulnerable to the bad guys as well.

      What makes you think only the good guys will use backdoors or exploit weaker encryption? What if it's a bad guy that gets ahold of the cops phone and looks inside? Which agency will be compromised?

      Bad guys often have better equipment than the good guys and by bad guys I am also including foreign nations, mafia, competing corporations, and Militaries of the world in addition to criminals.

      When will people get it through their heads that the same tools are used by both good and bad? Good people with guns stop bad people with guns. But bad people with guns also stop good people with guns. Good encryption can be used to protect bad people, but good encryption can also protect the good people.

      The catch here is the bad people won't care about artificial constructs such as laws. If they need a gun they will steal one or make one. If they want to cover their tracks online they will find a way to do it. The rest is just FUD and ignorance.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    3. Re:And you shouldn't be.... by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I realize that I phones are absurdly thin, but a typical audio bug is very tiny. If you can obtain a search warrant to search the phone, you can obtain a warrant for a ln authorised bug. Bugs take many forms, and can do many things. For instance, some can record the local EMI from a device, and then reproduce the activity of that device from that produced noise. That includes screen taps, gestures, etc.

      Put one of those in, let it record away, then arrest the perp, collect the bug, analyze its contents, then use the analysis to unlock the phone for further data retrieval.

      The real deal here is that the da does not want to have to physically bug the phones in question. He wants to arrest on weak charges, then go fishing.

    4. Re:And you shouldn't be.... by npslider · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'll turn on Fox News for the fair and balanced report!

  2. How were crimes solved before cell phones? by bluelip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many law enforcement leaders are acting as if no crimes can be solved unless all cell phones are made more vulnerable.

    What a great idea.... weaken everyone for a few rare cases.

    --

    Yep, I never spell check.
    More incorrect spellings can be found he
  3. Glad to hear it. Now, can I see the police files. by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Glad to hear he thinks we don't need privacy.

    Now I have a long list of police files and videos I would like to see.

    Wait, you mean you don't want us to see those? But thousands of accusations against police are going unsolved without access to them!

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  4. "Register your crimes! It's the law!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One problem time and again is that crypto only works for "the good guys" (which may or may not include LEOs, this is not automatic) if it isn't diddled, and therefore it also works for "the bad guys", whoever those might be. This is well-known in "intelligence"-land, but the concepts that are well-known and -understood there, quite certainly aren't in, oh, LEO land. Or the land of the liars, er, politicians. Or much anywhere else, really. Something that will have to change, thanks to information technology and world-wide networks.

    Another problem is that the LEOs are now the tail wagging the dog. Maybe they should re-read the Peelian principles, instead of fancying themselves the militarised "command and control" hub of society.