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Over the past five years, US authorities have gained access to hundreds of thousands of mobile devices.
At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 US states have the tools to access encrypted and locked smartphones, and they use them much more often than previously known.
According to a report by the Washington-based nonprofit Upturn, which investigates police use of similar technologies, at least 49 of the 50 largest US police departments possess such tools. And local law enforcement agencies that do not have this capacity can often send a blocked phone to a state or federal government forensic lab to hack into a mobile device.
Although the existence of such tools has been known for some time, phones are hacked more often than previously thought by authorities, and smartphones, with their huge reserves of personal data, are not as well protected as Apple and Google have claimed. According to experts, over the past five years, US authorities have gained access to hundreds of thousands of phones.
Hacking tools usually exploit vulnerabilities to remove the restriction on the number of times a password can be entered and then enter passcodes until the phone is unlocked. Due to all possible combinations, the six-digit iPhone password is guessed in 11 hours on average, and the ten-digit code in 12.5 years.
One of the developers of hacking tools is Grayshift. According to CEO David Miles, the company's products can help police infiltrate some iPhones in one day and help law enforcement "solve crimes in many areas faster." As Miles confirmed, the flagship tool Grayshift is worth $ 18,000.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies have spent tens of millions of dollars on hacking tools.
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At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 US states have the tools to access encrypted and locked smartphones, and they use them much more often than previously known.
According to a report by the Washington-based nonprofit Upturn, which investigates police use of similar technologies, at least 49 of the 50 largest US police departments possess such tools. And local law enforcement agencies that do not have this capacity can often send a blocked phone to a state or federal government forensic lab to hack into a mobile device.
Although the existence of such tools has been known for some time, phones are hacked more often than previously thought by authorities, and smartphones, with their huge reserves of personal data, are not as well protected as Apple and Google have claimed. According to experts, over the past five years, US authorities have gained access to hundreds of thousands of phones.
Hacking tools usually exploit vulnerabilities to remove the restriction on the number of times a password can be entered and then enter passcodes until the phone is unlocked. Due to all possible combinations, the six-digit iPhone password is guessed in 11 hours on average, and the ten-digit code in 12.5 years.
One of the developers of hacking tools is Grayshift. According to CEO David Miles, the company's products can help police infiltrate some iPhones in one day and help law enforcement "solve crimes in many areas faster." As Miles confirmed, the flagship tool Grayshift is worth $ 18,000.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies have spent tens of millions of dollars on hacking tools.
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