There has been a bit of fuss in recent times regarding the encryption on our smartphones. It’s great for users who want to protect their privacy and want a more secure device, but it’s bad news for law enforcement who now need to come up with new ways of trying to get suspects to unlock their devices.
However over in the UK, it seems that police have come up with a rather questionable method of bypassing the iPhone’s encryption. What hi-tech method have they come up with, you ask? It’s actually rather low-tech, and it involves “stealing” the phone from the hands of the suspect while they are using it.
The idea is that while they are using it, the phone is unlocked, and by stealing and ensuring the phone never falls asleep, police will be able to access it for as long they want. In fact this tactic has been used against a certain Gabriel Yew who was being investigated for manufacturing fake credit cards, and used an iPhone because he knew if he was ever caught, the evidence would be safe on his phone, or at least that’s what he thought.
For those questioning the legality of it, apparently it was a perfectly legal tactic for the police to do, so it looks like criminals aren’t as safe as they thought they were anymore.