India Claims to Have Tool to Defeat iPhone Encryption

Tool for Mobile Forensics

According to the New Indian Express, communication and IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad had mentioned recently that as part of a program, a tool for mobile forensics has been created which could handle smartphones, inclusive of Apple’s iPhone. India apparently has a secret technology to decrypt iPhones.This is not to say that a tool has been developed which would bypass encryption, instead a process to get past the lock screen has been created.

 Prasad had stated that the tool had come about, as a part of a continuous process of research and development instead of being a case of singling out iPhone for specific attention. Prasad has not revealed which other handsets and devices the government is capable of accessing, though smartphone users would be pleased at his admission that a universal encryption key has not been developed.The iPhone was in the midst of a legal battle between Apple and the FBI, earlier this year, when the FBI had sought the help of Apple in accessing a locked iPhone 5C that had been utilised by one of the two terrorist involved in the December attack in San Bernardino, California which had left 14 people dead.

Endanger Security & Privacy of Users

While the company had initially complied, it refused a court order demanding that it build a tool providing backdoor access into the iPhone. Apple together with most of the tech industry, believe that building such a tool would endanger the security and privacy of users. The conflict had ended towards late March when the feds had paid for a technique which had successfully unlocked the iPhone. The FBI had persevered that it needed the help of Apple for another case but relented after it had successfully hacked into the second iPhone.

As per tech firms, weakening encryption that seems to scramble data in order to be read only by the intended person tends to violate the privacy of device owners. Law enforcement officials state that encryption obstructs their ability to access data in criminal investigations. BlackBerry had faced trouble in India as well as other countries that had insisted on gaining access to encrypted customer data stored on the company’s server, in 2010. BlackBerry debated that it did not possess the encryption key and hence could not provide access to the data.

India On-going in its Research & Development

Apple had refrained from commenting immediately in response to writers request. India has a forensic tool for mobile which can apparently break into iPhone of Apple and maybe FBI should make a note of it. It is not known precisely what the tool is, which devices it is capable of cracking into and what operating system version they tend to run on.

However the confirmation of the tool comes from Ravi Shankar Prasad. The LAPD recently, had been successful in hacking into an iPhone, which raised doubts as to whether the FBI legally could break into the iPhone. If what the Indian communication minister says is true regarding the tool, then it would mean that India has a more sophisticated tool than the FBI. The minister allegedly said that India is on-going in its research and development in order to upgrade its tools and technologies in harmony with its ever-changing software and devices.