Apple makes it impossible for cops to search your iPhone

Well, the next obvious move is that the governments make laws specifying that all user content must be accessible to companies...

[link to arstechnica.com]

How long will you sleep?


Thomas Hawk
FURTHER READING


COURT ALLOWS USE OF “STINGRAY” CELL TRACKING DEVICE IN MURDER CASE
Court finds judge's order was basically like a warrant, so tracking was ok.
OAKLAND, CA—Documents released last week by the City of Oakland reveal that it is one of a handful of American jurisdictions attempting to upgrade an existing cellular surveillance system, commonly known as a stingray.
The Oakland Police Department, the nearby Fremont Police Department, and the Alameda County District Attorney jointly applied for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to "obtain a state-of-the-art cell phone tracking system," the records show.

Stingray is a trademark of its manufacturer, publicly traded defense contractor Harris Corporation, but "stingray" has also come to be used as a generic term for similar devices.

The cellular surveillance system's upgrade, known as Hailstorm, is necessary. Existing stingray devices will no longer work in a few years as older phone networks get turned off.

According to Harris' annual report, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, the company profited over $534 million in its latest fiscal year, the most since 2011.

"We do not comment on solutions we may or may not proivde to classified Department of Defense or law enforcement agencies," Jim Burke, a spokesman for Harris, told Ars.

Other locales known to be in the process of related federally-funded upgrades include Tacoma, Wash.; Baltimore, Md.; Chesterfield, Va.; Sunrise, Fla.; and Oakland County, Mich. There are likely many more, but such purchases are often shrouded in secrecy.

FURTHER READING


COPS HID USE OF PHONE TRACKING TECH IN COURT DOCUMENTS AT FEDS’ REQUEST
ACLU uncovers e-mails regarding Stingray devices borrowed from US Marshals Service.
Relatively little is known about how stingrays are precisely used by law enforcement agencies nationwide, although documents have surfaced showing how they have been purchased and used in some limited instances. Last year, Ars reported on leaked documents showing the existence of a body-worn stingray. In 2010, Kristin Paget famously demonstrated a homemade device built for just $1,500.
Worse still, cops have lied to courts about the use of such technology. Not only can stingrays be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages.

Robert Shipway, of the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, said he was not aware of their described use during the process of criminal discovery in county prosecutions in recent years. That could mean that local law enforcement and prosecutors are concealing or obscuring their use.

"[The upgrade] has not been fulfilled," Michael O’Connor, an assistant district attorney in Alameda County, told Ars. "It has not been approved and it has not been purchased."

He also noted that the county had applied for a similar grant to conduct an upgrade in 2012, but that application was denied, and he did not know why.

O’Connor also said that his office was currently in the process of gathering more relevant documents and would publicly release them in September. According to the newly released documents, the entire upgrade will cost $460,000—including $205,000 in total Homeland Security grant money, and $50,000 from the Oakland Police Department (OPD). Neither the OPD nor the mayor's office immediately responded to requests for comment.

Not your grandfather's stingray

FURTHER READING


MEET THE MACHINES THAT STEAL YOUR PHONE’S DATA
Keeping tabs on civilian phones? There's more than one way to skin that cat.
One of the primary ways that stingrays operate is by taking advantage of a design feature in any phone available today. When 3G or 4G networks are unavailable, the handset will drop down to the older 2G network. While normally that works as a nice last-resort backup to provide service, 2G networks are notoriously insecure. Handsets operating on 2G will readily accept communication from another device purporting to be a valid cell tower, like a stingray. So the stingray takes advantage of this feature by jamming the 3G and 4G signals, forcing the phone to use a 2G signal.
Christopher Soghoian, a technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union and a close observer of stingray technology, told Ars that little is known about the upgrades Hailstorm offers.

"The only difference that we know about is the 4G," he said, citing a purchase order from the Drug Enforcement Agency first unearthed by The News Tribune in Tacoma. That March 2014 document states: "Stingray II to Hailstrom Upgrade, etc. The Hailstorm Upgrade is necessary for the Stingray system to track 4G LTE Phones"

He explained that the new upgrade will continue to provide existing surveillance capability even after major cellular providers turn off support for the legacy 2G network, which is expected to occur in upcoming years. In 2012, AT&T announced that it would be shutting down its 2G network in 2017. Without the forced downgrade to 2G, a 4G phone targeted by a stingray would not be susceptible to the same types of interception at present, but it likely would still be susceptible to location tracking.

"Presumably, at some point after, new phones sold by AT&T will no longer support 2G," Soghoian added. "Once new phones stop working with 2G, Stingrays won't work any more. At that point, the Hailstorm will be the only way."

Thomas Pica, a Verizon spokesman, told Ars that the company's network would be operational "through the end of the decade." T-Mobile nor Sprint did not respond to Ars' request for comment.

"These things aren't cheap," Soghoian added. "My guess is that there are law enforcement agencies around the country who are frantically trying to find the money because at some point in the future, in the next two to five years, their existing stingrays are going to stop working and my guess is that they're really worried about that."

Other firms that make related devices include Martone Radio Technology, located 25 miles from Oakland, in San Ramon, Calif. Martone also did not respond to Ars' request for comment. Martone advertises 4G LTE interception on its site.

Never mind your ISP

DOD armed police departments with the hailstorm spy device

It should read more like this....

Apple (the creator of said security) is refusing to share the data gold mine from ISO 8.

Information is Power, ask the google.

unless the encryption scheme is open source that can be verified by outside parties, its probably bull shit.

some 1984 dis-info bull shit.

Bullshit - They are just saying that to promote sales for their latest POS, chances are it's more wide open than any iPhone in the past. They are sitting in the fallout of all those nude celebrity pics being hacked from the iCloud and are trying to look good.

The irony here is that, in the very small percentage of cases where cops actually need access to data being held on a phone because it's evidence in an investigation, they have a justified reason for needing that access and evidence.

On the other hand, 99% of the time your data is being sniffed by every intelligence agency in the world, when they DONT need access or data.

So yeah /golfclap @ apple for this pathetic fanservice which will not prevent spying, but may prevent cops getting hold of important evidence for crimes (porn, beatings etc)

if you believe this horseshit your an idiot..apple has had an NSA backdoor installed on every phone made..

Reality

Sounds irrelevant since most users upload a large amount of their data to 3rd party APPs and other systems that already collect data, like cellphone towers for location tracking, and text message/phone message/ web traffic interception by NSA.

It is a good step forward but Android is well ahead with things like the Black Phone.

And that black phone is probably just a honeypot intended to catch criminals anyway. Saves sifting through an awful lot of garbage that way. Granted you'll pick up a lot of Jason Bourne wannabes who use products and services such as the black phone and tor, but it's so much easier when you have all the legit crooks congregated to a single service they believe is protecting their privacy. (duckduckgo, tor etc) The list is growing.

This type of behavior by Apple may be one one of the reasons Steve Jobs didn't make it. He was anti Flash because of Adobe's clear failure for security and compliance with government spying. Steve Jobs absolutely rejected the NSA spying programs. Apple didn't get on board with PRISM until 6 months after Jobs' death.

Its not targeted at criminals, but rather rich business men that value their privacy. Hence its not likely to be a honey pot, since that would defeat the entire object get it exposed big time. Oh and the price puts it outside of the rich of petty criminals, for the most part.

Most criminals are dumb, the organized smart ones im pretty sure dont even use cellphones so its not likely that they would benefit from cracking or honey potting such elite level phones that are built to avoid that in the first place/

Last Edited by Agent Smith 2014 on 09/18/2014 07:05 AM

Good points. Although this kind of tech (the phone in particular) often starts out aimed at a few wealthy types, then filters down to the plebs later on after enough profit to produce some more is made.

So I view all of these kinds of products and services pretty skeptically. I mean it's just naive to throw your lot in with a company just because it claims to want to protect your privacy.

It's like the old scam of "you have a virus, download our helpful software to get rid of it"

have nothing to hide. I think the police have every right to search.

If Apple is taking this consumer centric pro privacy position - even for a short time until/unless the government orders otherwise - that alone is an excellent reason to buy an Apple iPhone and leave the Androids to be tracked by any cop with access to the police equipment… or a buddy who has access to it?

There is said to be a 3500 dollar cellphone that eliminates the ability to track/hack it. But at the same time there are dozens of software packages that you can buy and install on any phone you have access to. This software will give you copies of all text messages in and out, recordings of all phone calls made/received, and all geo=location info that the phone may capture. Once installed it is invisible to the user and can work seamlessly for years. The only way to get rid of it is to know where it is, and then go thru an “Un-Install” routine that requires the manufacturers software and web site to run!

SMH....

Hey asshat, it's not about you- your mom and dad lies and the world does not revolve around your own stupidity. Sorry to break this in such a harsh way, but it's for your own good.

I don't know if also happened in the rest of the world but in Italy often phone owners are killed by thieves if they refuse to give them the smartphone! if someone is murdered for police to find that phone is really easily as all phones have an IMEI code and once a new SIM is associated with that IMEI they just take a nanosecond to localize the new user. They never do it if a phone is just stolen without violence and doing so they protect thieves and cause disgraces...

Obey your Masters and slurp down their sloppy seconds like a
good, obedient, little sheeple.

Of course, "Stingray" will magically "malfunction" when a well-connected elite gets caught doing something illegal.

Again.....please tell me why we should believe this statement???? WHY? Does their track record warrant such trust??

PAPERS PLEASE!
BS
It's not about that and you know it!!

i dont believe it

Last Edited by Anubis on 09/18/2014 09:03 AM

Hmm, this coming from the folks who falsely represented themselves as law enforcement to gain entry to private residences?!?

Right!

The only true encryption that was protecting the user was Blackberry messenger.

Funny enough Blackberries are out.

Total Bullshit.

NSA has the backdoor code.

No question about it.

Fuck APPL

Who has the encryption keys?

The FatMan said that the reason we need antivirus software is because the nanny state government requires manufacturers to put back doors in their operating systems. This gives the NSA full access to your computer and hackers discover and exploit these back doors.

All to keep us safe from AL Qaeda of course.

Riiight...

There's always at least one more backdoor, or as Apple puts it: [link to www.apfellike.com]

if you put your tongue at the roof of your mouth
and say "Apple!"
it sounds like "Asshole!"

Try it!

"Ronald T. Hosko, the former head of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, called the move by Apple “problematic,” saying it will contribute to the steady decrease of law enforcement’s ability to collect key evidence — to solve crimes and prevent them. The agency long has publicly worried about the “going dark” problem, in which the rising use of encryption across a range of services has undermined government’s ability to conduct surveillance, even when it is legally authorized.

“Our ability to act on data that does exist . . . is critical to our success,” Hosko said. He suggested that it would take a major event, such as a terrorist attack, to cause the pendulum to swing back toward giving authorities access to a broad range of digital information."

What a fucking asshole.