Police, GreyShift struggle to keep iPhone unlocking tool purchases secret
Police and government agencies have tried to keep secret that they've bought GreyShift's GreyKey iPhone unlocking technology.
GreyShift's GreyKey unlocking tool
GreyShift's GreyKey iPhone forensics tool has been revealed in FCC filings before. But now a series of non-disclosure agreements and other confidentiality documents have revealed certain details about the use and requirements of the tool.
According to Motherboard, the documents were obtained through a series of public record requests. They are the documentation that police and other authorities are required to sign, and adhere to, before they can use GreyKey. They reveal what GreyShift needs police to keep secret.
Some of the documents contain sections that apparently were supposed to be redacted. One such section is related to a previous report that GreyShift had beaten Apple's 2018 USB Restricted Mode.
"Without limiting and foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that you will not disclose the existence of any GrayKey features and solutions designed to circumvent USB Restricted Mode released in iOS 11.4.1," says one such document, "and updated throughout future iOS versions made available to you on or about the date hereof, or any detail or functionality thereof."
The documents specify how the tool must be used on devices actually in police possession. And the series of documents also separately includes ones from government agencies who sought to keep secret that they had bought GreyKey.
"Confidentiality agreements help to protect our customers and partners with how confidential information is disclosed, and we protect and maintain the integrity of our relationships," GreyShift CEO David Miles told Motherboard over email.
"In addition, they are instrumental in preventing the public disclosure of our intellectual property to protect the integrity of our security research," he continued. "Confidentiality agreements are not at all meant to prevent disclosure of evidentiary data or general information about GrayKey in court proceedings that may result from data extracted by GrayKey during our customers' investigations."
Read on AppleInsider
GreyShift's GreyKey unlocking tool
GreyShift's GreyKey iPhone forensics tool has been revealed in FCC filings before. But now a series of non-disclosure agreements and other confidentiality documents have revealed certain details about the use and requirements of the tool.
According to Motherboard, the documents were obtained through a series of public record requests. They are the documentation that police and other authorities are required to sign, and adhere to, before they can use GreyKey. They reveal what GreyShift needs police to keep secret.
Some of the documents contain sections that apparently were supposed to be redacted. One such section is related to a previous report that GreyShift had beaten Apple's 2018 USB Restricted Mode.
"Without limiting and foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that you will not disclose the existence of any GrayKey features and solutions designed to circumvent USB Restricted Mode released in iOS 11.4.1," says one such document, "and updated throughout future iOS versions made available to you on or about the date hereof, or any detail or functionality thereof."
The documents specify how the tool must be used on devices actually in police possession. And the series of documents also separately includes ones from government agencies who sought to keep secret that they had bought GreyKey.
"Confidentiality agreements help to protect our customers and partners with how confidential information is disclosed, and we protect and maintain the integrity of our relationships," GreyShift CEO David Miles told Motherboard over email.
"In addition, they are instrumental in preventing the public disclosure of our intellectual property to protect the integrity of our security research," he continued. "Confidentiality agreements are not at all meant to prevent disclosure of evidentiary data or general information about GrayKey in court proceedings that may result from data extracted by GrayKey during our customers' investigations."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Thank the gods.
I understand the argument for their need for access, but past behavior shows that it has been and will continue to be abused. I don’t see how LE is allowed to just go thru my device without a court order. I equate it to having my house and personal records searched without any oversight.
The hottest corners of Hell should be reserved for the people who kill and maim and hide behind "privacy" as they are doing with my son who was killed 6 days ago by one of them, and not by accident. Check your priorities.
That's all I'll say about it.
The public has a right to know what public money is being spent upon.
The national security state would make sure of it.
Glad we have it.
I completely understand the privacy, and yet still see why there are two sides of the coin. My coin was flipped Friday. While Apple is busy "saving the children" I hope there can be some way too that children like mine can be protected from the evils that our smartphones help propagate.
I’m not sure giving LEOs access to every person-of-interest’s encrypted devices in order to solve daily crime is the answer. Second Amendment gun people have a phrase they like to use about objects and people… The wrongdoings of this world are the result of the people who do them, trying to blame cellphones or whatever seems misapplied. I don’t know if I have a problem with LEOs using devices or techniques to crack devices, but I do think that as this becomes more difficult they will next simply move to ban encryption, which the FBI and others have already advocated for. I don’t want to live in a world where only the government is allowed to encrypt data.
What I do have a problem with is forcing backdoors, banning encryption, etc.
Make them work for it.
And these cracking devices just make the iphones better in the long run as Apple works to secure the phone against such cracking devices.
Even public safety information is routinely hidden from people who rely on it for their own safety.
Yet they expect people to essentially walk through life naked and transparent.
In reality, everything is need to know only, as every bit of information can be weaponized and turned into compromat in the hands of a well trained manipulator.
The older I get, and the more governmental abuse of power I witness, the more I agree with the idea that government should be small enough to drown in a bathtub.
They should be concerned with defending the borders, keeping streets, sewer and water running, preventing the poisoning of the environment, and punishing violent crime, theft and fraud. And most everything else is none of their business, in particular any form of potential self-harm.