Apple tells US court that it is impossible to unlock and decrypt user data on an iPhone

Apple has told a US federal judge that it is not to possible even for the company itself to unlock a password protected iPhone running iOS 8.0 or later. U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein is hearing a case brought forward by the Justice Department that Apple help government requests to unlock and decrypt a seized iPhone device.

Apple said in a response filed in the court as seen by Wall Street Journal:

In most cases now and in the future, the government’s requested order would be substantially burdensome, as it would be impossible to perform. For devices running iOS 8 or higher, Apple would not have the technical ability to do what the government requests—take possession of a password protected device from the government and extract unencrypted user data from that device for the government. Among the security features in iOS 8 is a feature that prevents anyone without the device’s passcode from accessing the device’s encrypted data. This includes Apple.

Apple is cleverly trying to publicly state that iOS 8 and later is technically not hackable, unless the PIN is known. And the company also trying to state vehemently that it has no back doors in place to retrieve user data without their consent.

From the court filing, we can be sure that it is possible that iPhones running iOS 7 and earlier can be cracked, at least, by Apple itself. Jonathan Zdziarski, a security researcher, explained recently that your iOS 8 Data is Not Beyond Law Enforcement’s Reach… Yet. User data such as email, calender and possibly text message can then be retrieved. The iPhone in question for the case in front of Judge James Orenstein is running iOS version 7.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday October 21 2015, 12:09 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0