Apple to Close iPhone Security Hole That Police Use to Crack Devices
Source: The New York Times
By Jack Nicas
June 13, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO Apple has long positioned the iPhone as a secure device that only its owner can open. That has led to battles with law enforcement officials who want to get information off them, including a well-publicized showdown with the F.B.I. in 2016 after Apple refused to help open the locked iPhone of a mass killer.
The F.B.I. eventually paid a third party to get into the phone, circumventing the need for Apples help. Since then, law enforcement agencies across the country have increasingly employed that strategy to get into locked iPhones they hope will hold the key to cracking cases.
Now Apple is closing the technological loophole that let authorities hack into iPhones, angering police and other officials and reigniting a debate over whether the government has a right to get into the personal devices that are at the center of modern life.
Apple said it was planning an iPhone software update that would effectively disable the phones charging and data port the opening where users plug in headphones, power cables and adapters an hour after the phone is locked. While a phone can still be charged, a person would first need to enter the phones password to transfer data to or from the device using the port.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/technology/apple-iphone-police.html