Apple's iMessage encryption trips up feds' surveillance

[Tony Aroma]

Way to go, Apple!!!

Encryption used in Apple's iMessage chat service has stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on suspects' conversations, an internal government document reveals.

An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, "it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices" even with a court order approved by a federal judge.

The DEA's warning, marked "law enforcement sensitive," is the most detailed example to date of the technological obstacles -- FBI director Robert Mueller has called it the "Going Dark" problem -- that police face when attempting to conduct court-authorized surveillance on non-traditional forms of communication.

When Apple's iMessage was announced in mid-2011, Cupertino said it would use "secure end-to-end encryption." It quickly became the most popular encrypted chat program in history: Apple CEO Tim Cook said last fall that 300 billion messages have been sent so far, which are transmitted through the Internet rather than as more costly SMS messages carried by wireless providers.

A spokeswoman for the DEA declined to comment on iMessage and encryption. Apple also declined to comment.

The DEA's "Intelligence Note" says that iMessage came to the attention of the agency's San Jose, Calif., office as agents were drafting a request for a court order to perform real-time electronic surveillance under Title III of the Federal Wiretap Act. They discovered that records of text messages already obtained from Verizon Wireless were incomplete because the target of the investigation used iMessage: "It became apparent that not all text messages were being captured."

Full Story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57577887-38/apples-imessage-encryption-trips-up-feds-surveillance/

 

[soursmoker]

so the iMessasge is more secure than a text message?

hmm I was always under the impression it would be less secure lol

guess this is good?

 

[foaf]

the content may be encrypted en route but who its from and where its going, and once it gets there, the content are not encrypted or obscured.

wickr app is a very secure messaging system that encrypts, obscures both sender and reciever and self erases at a preset time. Its really a good app for communication. I could safely give someone here my wickr account username, and we could communicate and you wouldnt know who I was or where and visa versa. not the case with imessages.

that said, I like imessages for texting in general

 

[mr.shiva]

Lol, I was going to post a link to the article ... I read it this morning. Makes me think wickr is a good choice if they are having probs with iMessage