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To: mrsmith; ctdonath2
CHEAP AND EASY encryption indeed leads to the problem that unlocking one device means unlocking all devices. Individualized encryption requires more effort and expense by the manufacturer- and more cost to the consumer. But maintains the Fourth Amendment and, given a large enough production, is affordable.

Excuse me? Who told you that the best encryption on any mobile device and the strongest security is "CHEAP AND EASY encryption"? It is far from that. It is baked into the hardware and the OS and provides rock solid end-to-end 256 bit AES encryption of everything on the device. It is not a pasted on after thought such as you are claiming is better. Access to ALL Android devices has been available from multiple vendors for years, despite every thing Google and the multiple manufacturers of Android devices have tried.

Only three weeks ago did a company finally get to the point of being able to offer a means of cracking into a modern iPhone. Before that it was not possible. The Hacking Team offered the means to get into every other mobile device on the market, but NOT the modern iPhone.

That new development was due to an Israeli security company out-bidding Apple at the White Hat hackers competition in late June by bidding $1 million for what appeared at the time to be a general iOS vulnerability which later turned out to affect not only Apple iOS but apparently all other mobile devices in general AND OS X Yosemite and El Capitan as well. This crack only gained access to certain currently in use data, but not to everything encrypted on the iPhone such as stored data, but it was still quite worrisome as it apparently allowed the one who had it to track the phone, tap into the messaging services and email being sent and received prior to and after encryption, track internet activity, operate the camera and microphone surreptitiously and monitor the user's activities.

What it did not and could not do is get the user's passcode. That processing is handled by a dedicated Encryption processor which with its own buried memory which is locked off from even the main processor.

This Israeli company made this crack available only to government agencies around the world for a fee of $650,000 for 10 devices plus a one-time $500,000 set up fee. The exploit required the installation of a malicious app onto the iPhone by some means, either surreptitiously, by hook or crook, or physical possession, or by phishing the target. In other words, it was a sophisticated Trojan, and not one that would or could be targeted to the average user.

The Israeli company had also made it also available for Android, Symbian, Blackberry, and (although not mentioned) Windows phones, because the three vulnerabilities were apparently in a standard that all five systems use.

However, it is no longer available to that company for Apple iOS devices. . . Because Apple closed those vulnerabilities on iOS devices within three days of discovering their first use in the wild. A week later it was discovered the same vulnerabilities were shared with OS X, and Apple closed them there as well. It will not be closed on more than 80% of Android devices in the wild, all of the Symbian devices still out there. It will probably be fixed for both Windows, Blackberry, and more modern Android devices running the later versions of Android.

Any pasted on encryption has to put the passcodes and testing software to unlock it somewhere outside of the encrypted data. That is its soft point and the way to attack it to break in, it's Achilles Heel. Apple does not have that at all as the passcode is not kept on the device at all.

162 posted on 09/06/2016 7:09:57 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Swordmaker

So we agree maintaining the security of a device’s “passcode” is not CHEAP AND EASY for the manufacturer?
Amazing!


163 posted on 09/06/2016 7:47:18 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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