Cat-and-mouse game
| Author | Jason Tashea |
| Pages | 28-30 |
28 || ABA JOURNAL OCTOBER 2018
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SARA WADFORD, COLIN ROBERT VARNDELL, LIGHTSPRUCH, WANWI17/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Business of Law
||
SPECIAL EDITION
CAT-AND-MOUSE
GAME
Tech companies face a dicult
juggling act as customers
demand cybersecurity
while law enforcement wants
easier access to evidence
By Jason Tashea
On March 6, t he iPhone’s encryption
became no match for the Indi ana State
Police .
Armed with G rayKey, a tool that
circumvent s iPhone passwords and
encryption, the a gency was able to plug
into dozens of iPhones in its posse s-
sion and collect previously u nattainable
information for ongoing investigations.
Communications tec hnology is “defi-
nitely making it more di cult for us to
gather evidence, both t echnically and
through serv ice of legal process,” says
Chuck Cohen, an Indiana St ate Police
captain.
Within 60 days of obta ining
GrayKey, the agency, with legal author-
ity, was able to unlock 96 iPhones. The
tool has led to both inc riminating and
exculpator y evidence, Cohen says .
The Indiana State Police, w hich
spent $15,000 on the technology, is
not alone. The Maryland St ate Police
and police depa rtments in Portla nd,
Oregon, and Ro chester, Minnesota ,
have also bought GrayKey, according t o
public records. The Drug Enforcement
Agency is looking to spend $30,000 on
an advanc ed model.
In response to this t ype of securi-
ty-busti ng technology, Apple rele ased
a feature in beta t o iOS 11.4.1 called the
USB restricted mode, w hich requires a
phone to be unlocked with in the pre-
vious hour to allow for dat a transfer
through the charg ing port, eectively
neutering products such a s GrayKey.
“We’re constant ly strengthening the
security prot ections in every Apple
product to help customers defend
against hacker s, identity thieves and
intrusions into their p ersonal data,”
Apple said in an emailed st atement.
“We have the greatest respe ct for law
enforcement, and we don’t design our
security improvement s to frustrate
their eorts to do thei r jobs.”
After un locking a backlog of phones,
Cohen says it’ll be ha rd to go back to
the way things were.
“If a company makes a busines s deci-
sion that locks us out again , that causes
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