Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has created a waiting list for the excessive demands by Police for decrypting the seized iPhone’s. The iPhone maker has created this list in order to avoid any confusion in processing the request, reports CNET.
Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Present Case
In one of the recent cases, according to court documents, the federal agents were baffled by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a man in Kentucky who was charged for supplying crack cocaine.
An ATF agent, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “contacted Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to obtain assistance in unlocking the device,” U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell mentions in a recent opinion. The Judge also mentioned, the ATF was “placed on a waiting list by the company.”
ATF agent Rob Maynard said that he wandered for nearly three months last year to find a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency that could unlock an iPhone 4S. But he got the same answer from everywhere, and all the agencies said that they don’t have forensic capability to unlock this phone. Maynard at last asked Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for help.
Maynard was told that the unlocking of the phone can take up to 7 weeks according to Joann Chang, a legal specialist in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) litigation group. The reason being, the list of requests have increased manifold.
Similar Case, earlier
In Nevada also, a similar case surfaced when the agents there told a judge that they are not able to probe into a sized iPhone and iPad because it is encrypted. The Drug enforcement Administration has also faced a similar issue with encryption problem in iMessage chat service as per an internal document.
The documents shed light on the law enforcement practice of doing forensic analysis on locked mobile devices, and it is growing in demand.
Last year, the leaked training material designed by Sacramento Sheriff’s office, had a form attached that would mandate Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to support the agents by bypassing the cell phone user’s pass code so that the agents may search the iPhone.” Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) in this case does not compromise with the security of the user as it resets the password instead of breaking it and provides the new password to the agents. The drawback is that the user gets to know that his password has been changed.
ATF’s public affairs chief, Ginger Colbrun said that ATF is bound not to discuss the details of the ongoing investigations or litigations. He said that federal law is followed by ATF and works under DOJ/department wide policy on access to all communication devices.
