Law enforcement officials in the UK have come up with their own tactic to bypass the strong security on Apple devices.
Rather than relying on “gray-hat” hackers or expensive intrusion software, their method is actually pretty simple: officers “mug” a suspect while they are using the phone, swipe through the device’s menus to keep it from locking, and download all pertinent information from it while it is unlocked, according to ARS Technica.
And while the tactic is basically a street robbery, it’s apparently legal under UK law — and has been adopted by at least one law enforcement group in the country. A specialist team of the London-based Metropolitan Police, called Operation Falcon, first devised the tactic. The team focuses on fraud and online organized crime, and used the technique to bust a fake credit card racket, according to the BBC.
In June, investigators from Falcon obtained a warrant for Gabriel Yew, a suspect in a fraud case. The detectives reportedly tailed Yew, waited for him to make a phone call, and then proceeded to apprehend him. During the arrest, one of the officers grabbed Yew’s phone and swiped through screens to keep it unlocked until the team could connect the device to a computer. Using the tactic, the investigators were able to acquire data on Yew’s credit card fraud business, as well as 100 other suspects in the fraud ring, the BBC reported. Yew later pleaded guilty to several charges and was given a five-year-and-six-month sentence, the Metropolitan Police said.
As simple as the tactic is, it might be one of a few options for other law enforcement entities to get pertinent information from an encrypted device going forward. The Metropolitan Police detectives found that they had little legal power to compel Yew to unlock the device willingly, 9to5Mac reported. In the U.S., because of the Fifth Amendment, iPhone owners are shielded from being forced to unlock their devices.
These legal protections, along with Cupertino’s strong commitment to privacy and iOS’ full-disk encryption, make it nearly impossible for law enforcement entities to crack Apple devices.
Earlier this year, the FBI found itself unable to break into a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. It then attempted to force Apple via court order to develop backdoor software for their devices — which the company fought. The FBI later announced that the phone had been cracked by a third-party hacker. Similarly, in a recent Fortune profile, it was revealed that the Manhattan district attorney’s office had 423 Apple devices in its evidence room that remain uncrackable.
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