A week ago, President Obama withdrew its fight with Silicon Valley on the encryption of iPhone data and other devices. The White House decided not to pursue on the creation of crypto backdoors that would allow government agencies to access decrypted data. However, FBI may still have a lot of other ways in.
Bad guys may be rejoicing due to the step back in the surveillance of authorities. The decision, moreover, angered authorities such as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The administration agreed with Apple, Google, and Microsoft that the backdoors will cause most Americans to be most likely vulnerable to hacking.
However, for a determined cop, a crypto backdoor might not be needed at all. In fact, encryption won't affect the determination of a cop out of a target's private data.
"In spite of the big words the FBI has used over the last year, the situation isn't quite as dire as they make it out to be," says Chris Soghoian in a Wired post, principal technologist for the ACLU. "The kind of encryption tech companies are giving us is geared towards protecting us from a thief stealing our laptop. It's not designed to keep out a government agent trying to get your data with or without a court order."
Apple has been one of the enemies of FBI in the light of encryption. iPhone, being one of the smart phones with the highest security measures, FBI director Comey has compared it to a "closet that can't be opened."
But, Nick Weaver, a security researcher at Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute said that there are about four ways to get into the typical iPhone.
Here are some backdoors as posted in Wired that can leave private data open on your iPhone even if is locked and encrypted:
- Wide Open Cloud - iPhone sends almost everything to the user's iCloud backup by default. If the user hasn't turned this automatic upload, the police can always have Apple submit the data, even photos and messages.
- Fingerprinting - the iPhone's TouchID fingerprint reader has made cops' work as easy as possible. Instead of luring the suspect into telling his code, the police can always have him press on the screen and all his data are out.
- Laptop exposure - if the user has used his phone on the laptop, a backup data is more likely available on iTunes. The pairing record on the laptop will most likely be used by the cops to sync the phone to their own.
- Leaky Siri - Siri is your worst confidante. Even at lock mode, Siri can still answer queries with the latest data on your phone such as events, calls and contacts.
- Breaking In - iPhone exploitation tactics are available for at least $1million, but those outdated ones can be easier to break into
Not many people are sneaky enough to be able to take everything into consideration. The FBI and NSA will always have their way needless of the crypto backdoor.
