Cellebrite Thinks Unlocking The iPhone Is For Public Safety

Depending on how you look at it, there are some who feel that Apple should comply with law enforcement and unlock iPhones on request. However there are some who agree with Apple’s stance and that the security and encryption of iPhone devices should be left to their owners, and not held by anyone else, including Apple.

However this has led to law enforcement agencies like the FBI  to seek outside help, like that of Cellebrite who claims to be able to unlock iPhones running on iOS 11.2.6, which is the latest version of iOS. However the company believes that what they’re doing is done for public safety, according to a recent interview with Forbes.

Speaking to Forbes, the company’s chief marketing officer, Jeremy Nazarian said, “There’s a public safety imperative here. These capabilities are germane again to homicide, crimes against children, drug gangs, major public safety threats in any community. We feel an obligation to those serving the public safety mission to ensure those capabilities are preserved, to the extent that they can be.”

Naturally Cellebrite does not share how they might have discovered the secret to unlocking the iPhone, but the director of Point3 Security Ryan Duff speculates that they might be taking advantage of a flaw in Apple’s Secure Enclave, which means that in theory, Cellebrite could take less than 23 hours to crack an iPhone that relied only on a 6-digital numerical passcode.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone, Privacy, Security