Documents Prove Local Cops Have Bought Cheap iPhone Cracking Tech (vice.com)

GrayShift is a new company that promises to unlock even iPhones running the latest version of iOS for a relatively cheap price. From a report: In a sign of how hacking technology often trickles down from more well-funded federal agencies to local bodies, at least one regional police department has already signed up for GrayShift's services, according to documents and emails obtained by Motherboard. As Forbes reported on Monday, GrayShift is an American company which appears to be run by an ex-Apple security engineer and others who have long held contracts with intelligence agencies. In its marketing materials, GrayShift offers a tool called GrayKey, an offline version of which costs $30,000 and comes with an unlimited number of uses. For $15,000, customers can instead buy the online version, which grants 300 iPhones unlocks.

This is what the Indiana State Police bought, judging by a purchase order obtained by Motherboard. The document, dated February 21, is for one GrayKey unit costing $500, and a "GrayKey annual license -- online -- 300 uses," for $14,500. The order, and an accompanying request for quotation, indicate the unlocking service was intended for Indiana State Police's cybercrime department. A quotation document emblazoned with GrayShift's logo shows the company gave Indiana State Police a $500 dollar discount for their first year of the service. Importantly, according to the marketing material cited by Forbes, GrayKey can unlock iPhones running modern versions of Apple's mobile operating system, such as iOS 10 and 11, as well as the most up to date Apple hardware, like the iPhone 8 and X.

Comments

Sue their arse

[mysidia]

GrayShift is an American company which appears to be run by an ex-Apple security engineer and others who have long held contracts with intelligence agencies.

Seriously? That ex-security-engineer must be violating like 20 different agreements that Apple makes their employees that build their products sign, and here's hoping to see Apple press the charges for industrial espionage, get that ex-engineer in jail for 25 years and sue him for every $$ he and his company's worth.

Taking innate knowledge and all the trade secrets you learned about your employer's product AND then using that to go to work creating or working for a company whose purpose is to subvert that product is almost as severe a breach of IP a product engineer can commit....

Re:Sue their arse

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless it's Apple's way of circumventing the public outcry they'd be suffering under if it was found out they don't actually believe in security for their users the way they've been saying. Seriously, my very first thought reading that sentence is, "Ah, Apple found a way to give the government what they wanted without getting blamed for it directly."

Re:Sue their arse

[Anonymous Coward]

And if they DON'T patch it, and they DON'T go after their ex-employee for the damage they did to the security of their systems, then you can just take it to assume that Apply is complicit with their ex-employee and the government at undermining the safety and security of their customer's information.