You’ll frequently hear law enforcement complain that it can’t break the full-drive encryption in newer smartphone operating systems, but how often does the police run into that problem, really? Thanks to a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you now have a better idea. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has revealed that, out of the 92 cases where an iPhone with iOS 8 has been involved so far, the cops have been locked out 74 times. District Attorney Cyrus Vance portrays this as proof that officers need backdoors or other forms of guaranteed access, noting that there’s at least one case (in Illinois) where evidence from a victim’s iPhone led to a conviction. Police shouldn’t simply be told that there’s “nothing [they] can do, ” he says. Context is everything, however, and this isn’t quite as dire a situation as Vance made it out to be. The Manhattan DA typically handles 100, 000 cases a year — 0.0007 percent is a drop in the bucket. Moreover, there’s no records showing whether or not the encryption actually stopped the investigation cold. It’s possible that the security merely forced officers to rely on other forms of evidence. While there’s still a concern that clever criminals will take advantage of encryption, there’s also no data showing that there would be enough arrests to justify the reduced privacy. [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Apple Comments Source: Wired
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iPhone encryption has locked out Manhattan cops just 74 times
An anonymous reader notes that ICANN is closing the comment period for its plan to prevent owners of commercial websites from keeping their personal details out of a site’s public-facing registration information. Digital rights groups are taking the opportunity to explain how real harm can result from this decision. The Online Abuse Prevention Initiative posted an open letter to ICANN pointing out the rise of doxing and swatting: “Our concern about doxing is not hypothetical. Randi Harper, a technologist, anti-harassment activist, and founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, was swatted based on information obtained from the Whois record for her domain. The only reason law enforcement did not draw their weapons and break down Harper’s door was that she had previously warned her local police department about swatting.” Cathy Gellis at Popehat refers to the situation surrounding Charles Carreon, the man who antagonized The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman’s webcomic) and issued legal threats to those who called him out. “In that case the critic had selected a domain incorporating Carreon’s name in order to best get his point about Carreon’s thuggery across, which the First Amendment and federal trademark law allowed him to do. … Unfortunately, the registrar immediately caved to Carreon’s pressure and disclosed the critic’s identifying information, thereby eviscerating the privacy protection the critic expected to have, and depended on, for his commentary.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
