Apple’s latest mobile operating systems have foiled a federal contractor that sells tools to governments designed to extract data from iPhones, a report said Wednesday.
Grayshift, an Atlanta-based tech vendor co-founded by a former Apple engineer, has been unable to find a way to access encrypted data stored on iPhones running iOS 12 and above, Forbes reported, potentially complicating matters for customers ranging from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies both domestically and abroad.
Citing unspecified multiple sources, the report said “GrayKey,” a phone-cracking tool sold by the company, is unable to bypass the password feature that protects Apple devices that have been updated since the release of the operating system in September.
Attempts to access data stored on iPhones running iOS 12 or above have released in a limited, “partial extraction,” meaning GrayKey users have only been able to access “unencrypted files and some metadata, such as file sizes and folder structures,” the report said.
Grayshift previously claimed its products were capable of bypassing security features designed to safeguard data stored on mobile devices, effectively providing a way for law enforcement agencies and other customers to glean digital evidence stored on lawfully seized but otherwise password-protected and inaccessible iPhones.
Apple confirmed in June that its next mobile operating system would implement a security feature on phones that was expected to make it more difficult for GrayKey users to extract data from password-protected iPhones, “USB Restricted Mode,” but the announcement hardly hurt the vendor’s business. Grayshift signed a $30,000 order that same month for “information technology software” with the Federal Bureau of Prisons — as well as similar orders with the Drug Enforcement Agency and Internal Revenue Service — prior to cutting record a $384,000 deal on Sept. 7 with ICE.
Last week, meanwhile, Wired reported that GrayShift’s newest customers include law enforcement agencies in the U.K., including police departments in Lancashire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
Representatives for neither Apple nor Grayshift responded to requests for comment, Forbes reported.
Law enforcement officials have ripped Apple for years over security measures that have made it difficult for investigators to access data stored on seized iPhones, and the dispute infamously resulted in the Obama administration’s Department of Justice suing the company in 2016 in an effort to crack into a password-protected device belonging to a slain terrorism suspect.
More recently, President Trump’s top federal law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, each suggested that lawmakers consider legislation addressing problems imposed on criminal investigators by increasingly ubiquitous and hard-to-crack encryption.
Mr. Trump, on his part, previously called for boycotting Apple products during the Justice Department’s dispute with the company in 2016.
“Boycott all Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities,” Mr. Trump tweeted from the campaign trail that February.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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