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iPhone Encryption Hampers Investigation of Texas Shooter, Says FBI (chron.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the you-said-that-last-time dept.

"FBI officials said Tuesday they have been stymied in their efforts to unlock the cellphone of the man who shot and killed at least 26 people at a church here on Sunday," reports the Houston Chronicle. Slashdot reader Anon E. Muss writes: The police obtained a search warrant for the phone, but so far they've been unable to unlock it. The phone has been sent to the FBI, in the hope that they can break in... If it is secure, and the FBI can't open it, expect all hell to break loose. The usual idiots (e.g. politicians) will soon be ranting hysterically about the evil tech industry, and how they're refusing to help law enforcement.
FBI special agent Christopher Combs complained to the Chronicle that "law enforcement increasingly cannot get in to these phones."

A law professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology argues there's other sources of information besides a phone, and police officers might recognize this with better training. As just one example, Apple says the FBI could've simply just used the dead shooter's fingerprint to open his iPhone. But after 48 hours, the iPhone's fingerprint ID stops working.

18 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Try police work not phone unlocking by sunyjim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If only there was some sort of Police Work that could be done to solve these crimes without taking away everyone rights of privacy...

    1. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think they whole reason FBI is whining is for political purposes. They want the laws to allow them to search more with fewer impediments. Thus they don't ask Apple for help since that removes the ability to whine about it.

      That said, why the 48 hour time? Does that mean living people must use the fingerprint sensor every 2 days or they're locked out?

    2. Re: Try police work not phone unlocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not locked out, but after 48 hours you have to input the password.

    3. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If only there was some sort of Police Work that could be done to solve these crimes without taking away everyone rights of privacy...

      For instance, a detailed record of all the calls & text messages you've made and received is available from the cellphone company with your righteous subpoena.

      Why do you need into the phone again?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    4. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      basically, the FBI, CIA, NSA all are just a bunch of cron jobs.

      every 'n' days, they wake up, cry about not being able to stroll thru ALL our communications, find some trendy 'scare' story of the day and bind to it so that they can emotionally keep attacking our personal freedoms and privacy.

      every fucking time, that cron job fires, we try to silence it. but its persistent and as some have said, they're playing a long-game, here. they will KEEP trying until they find an emotional weakness and get an 'open' to create even more restrictive anti-privacy laws.

      many of us see this. but it does not matter. those that see it are not in a position to stop it. and those that can stop it,do not EVER want to stop it. they are addicts on a power trip and there's no cure for their hunger ;(

      --

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    5. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Interesting

      hus they don't ask Apple for help since that removes the ability to whine about it.

      Not only didn't they ask for help, but Apple reached out to them immediately and they refused the help . Perhaps because they had been waiting for an opportunity to complain about encryption.

    6. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      every fucking time, that cron job fires, we try to silence it. but its persistent and as some have said, they're playing a long-game, here

      While I agree with what you say, the long-term survival of our personal freedoms and the government's repeated appeals to emotion to erode them are mutually exclusive. Considering the stakes, is there any way at all to stop the cron job once and for all, or do we have to repeatedly quash it?

    7. Re:Try police work not phone unlocking by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think they whole reason FBI is whining is for political purposes. They want the laws to allow them to search more with fewer impediments. Thus they don't ask Apple for help since that removes the ability to whine about it.

      That said, why the 48 hour time? Does that mean living people must use the fingerprint sensor every 2 days or they're locked out?

      Oh, it's political all right. Apple offered the FBI help to unlock the phone. In fact, Apple reached out to the FBI for this - presuming the killer used Touch ID, it would be easy to unlock the phone! (Remember, there are a few ways to bypass a fingerprint sensor using fake fingerprints).

      But the FBI stalled and stalled until the window closed. You can bet it's on purpose - Apple was offering, pre-emptively, to help them (probably conjuring up a fake finger to fool the sensor). Hell, I'm sure the FBI has access to PLENTY of labs that can do this, too!

      So no, the FBI has INTENTIONALLY refused Apple's help. Why? Because the phone is not important at all. The FBI couldn't care less about the phone's contents. The political fight to remove encryption is the real target

      The phone's data is unimportant. There is no evidence on the phone the FBI wants, guaranteed. Because if there was, why else would they refuse Apple's help? This is an emotional plea to get the public saying the evil phone companies are keeping them from doing their jobs.

      Apple offered to help. The FBI deliberately ignored them. The FBI is who should account for the loss of evidence - they are the ones who deliberately destroyed it.

  2. What do you need to know? by Snotnose · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Guy busted his kid's skull. Guy took weapons on base. Guy spent a year in the brig. Guy got dogs off Craigslist to shoot for target practice.

    Guy was a major asshole with huge red flags over his head who should have been found and neutralized years ago. If only the Air Force had followed existing laws that would have prevented him from buying guns. But no, we need more gun control and backdoor encryption.

    The phone? The fibbies knew there was a 48 hour timeout on the fingerprint thing. The fibbies knew without that they didn't stand a chance of getting into the phone (or they have a way in they don't want us to know about).

    This is just the government narrative of "we have to have backdoor encryption cuz this dude".

  3. What is there ti investigate? by fermion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    A weak pathetic white guy who liked to beat his wife and crack his infants skull went in a shot a lot of people. It happens often enough? What else do we need to know.

    We know the USAF gave him a minimum sentence for cracking his babies skull, did not give him a dishonorable discharge, and chose to protect this baby beater by not entering his information into the criminal database. If there is anything to investigate, it is whey the USAF protect wife and kid heaters. The USAF, in fact, could have put him in jail for fiver years, given him a dishonorable discharge, and made his crime public record. The reason that dozens of people are dead is because they chose not to.

    The iPhone thing is just another effort to continue to erode our rights to privacy. It is not going to bring the dead back. It is not going to prevent the air force from releasing another trained killer, maybe this time a baby killer, back into society to murder even more people.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:What is there ti investigate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's obvious. There is some retarded theory going around that you can find "triggers". Once you find these triggers, you can eliminate them and these problems won't happen anymore. Everyone wants to know "What set him off?" It's really the height of stupidity to believe that you can find a single, simple reason for something like this.

  4. Re:terrorist and pedos love iphones! by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There must be no access possible under any conditions
    Because we already KNOW they do illegal search and seizure on a daily basis.
    THEY can not be trusted therefore:
    Bulletproof and invulnerable encryption is our only recourse to force police to act within the law

  5. Uh huh... by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Phone encryption is the problem here, not how easy it is for any lunatic to get a gun in the US. Sounds like just another distraction from the real issue.

  6. The right of the people... shall not be infringed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here is the 2nd Amendment:

    A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

    Back in the day, the word "well regulated" mean "well equipped". The revolutionaries had just finished fending off the well equipped military of the King of England, and they did so because men of fighting age had arms.

    In order to keep the new American State free, it's necessary to protect the State's freedom with a well equipped group of fighters. Thus, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, because not only is that an inalienable right endowed by the Creator (as indicated in the Declaration of Independence), but keeping and bearing arms allows The People to be ready to fight for their freedom—especially against a distant, intractable, Tyrannical power, as the Federal government increasingly seems to be.

    Look, the American theory of government is that rights existed before the government; it is not the government that grants rights, but rather the "Creator" (i.e., rights are an inherent aspect of sentient beings). A government gets its authority from the fact that The People collectively agree to delegate some of their own authorities to the Government; yet, the founders thought that the right to bear arms is so fundamental and important to a Free society, that they decided to enshrine that right explicitly in the 2nd Amendment (rather than leave it as one of the implicit, "unenumerated" rights), and in doing so, the founders forbade the government from even accepting from The People any delegation of the associated authority—as the Constitution is currently written, it's not even possible for The People to delegate away their right to keep and bear arms.

    If the governments of the United States ever did get rid of the Second Amended, there would be a lot of people who would cry "Tyranny!"; those people would deny ever having legitimately delegated their right away, and there would be—without any doubt—a second Civil War.

  7. If they are such a threat by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe a 48 hour cooling off period and a criminal background check should be required before you are able to buy an iPhone.

    1. Re:If they are such a threat by mishehu · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually that is a strange statistic that I'm kind of curious about - what is the ratio of ownership of iPhones versus Android phones in the hands of people who have perpetrated such crimes.

  8. What investigation? by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    what exactly are they hoping to learn? This sort of thing has been going on for ages and we've done fuck all about it. No sign of gun control since it's a complete losing issue politically. No expansion of mental health services. Hell, this guy was kicked out of the church by the pastor.

    There's nothing to investigate here. A depressed loon ball with access to high power killing equipment who'd been shit on a bit too much said 'fuck it'. Case closed. What, you think you're gonna find the illuminati are behind it all? This is just another excuse to get decryption keys and back doors from manufactures. Fortunately it'll go nowhere since the more we discuss it the more we have to bring up universal medical care (which nobody wants to pay for) or gun control (which is DOA).

    --
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  9. Re:A way for Police to break strong crypto... by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And then someone gets a copy of Apple's private key and leaks it.

    Kinda like what happened to the NSA's hacking tools.