Stunning new revelations in New York this evening as it has emerged that the NYPD is (and this is likely widely illegal) using a top-tier forensics lab to try and facilitate the hacking of some 26m iPhones. The building is reportedly located across the street from the Supreme Court in lower Manhattan.
NYC ‘s DA Cyrus Vance attempted to mansplain the stunning project this week in several interviews.
‘You entrust us with this responsibility to protect the public,’ he told Fast Company.
‘At the same time, [Apple and Google] have taken away one of our best sources of information. Just because they say so.’
It’s worth noting that the city quietly spent some $10m on the facility, although has close to no luck in actually cracking the iPhones. Both Google and Apple openly and confidently rely on the use of end-to-end encryption that prevents unauthorised access to their phones. The only true way to get into them is to unlock them.
According to what we’ve learned:
- When the staff receives a new device, they hook up the device to a supercomputer type device that attempts to push through dozens of possible passwords in hopes it’ll open the device.
- About 82 per cent of all devices in NYPD possession have not been unlocked.
- Apple has mostly been willing to help with iCloud information in the past, however, refuses to budge on accessing the phone itself.
Earlier this year, the company abandoned plans to expand its encryption level services to iCloud after the government and the FBI openly complained.
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