There's Nothing the FBI Can Do? Unimaginable Android Screen Lock
The FBI tells us from practical experience that Android's screen lock is more powerful than we think. FBI experts made a lot of attempts to crack a suspect's smartphone, but they still failed to pass the pattern unlock. As a result, they had to ask Google for help, but Google did not say whether it would provide help.It is believed that users who have used Android phones are not unfamiliar with the pattern unlocking interface composed of nine dots, and many people like to set complex unlocking patterns. A recent news also confirmed the high security of pattern unlocking: Android screen lock successfully shut down the FBI.With the increasing importance of user information and content stored in smart phones, people pay more and more attention to the security of mobile phones. Many people will set unlock passwords to protect their privacy. The U.S. government is also aware of this. Many states in the United States have formulated relevant regulations, such as California, which allows law enforcement departments to obtain the information in the suspect's mobile phone without applying for an investigation order.
In a recent federal court document, the FBI confirmed that in order to investigate a suspected pimp in San Diego, the Bureau of investigation applied for a court investigation order and was allowed to crack his mobile phone to obtain some information. However, FBI experts made "a lot of cracking attempts" on the pimp's Samsung exhibit II mobile phone, but finally failed to pass the screen lock. As we all know, once an Android device is wrongly unlocked many times, it needs to be unlocked again with the matching Google account and password.Experts and companies in the field of mobile phone cracking have also confirmed that the screen function of Android system can effectively prevent illegal intrusion. Dan Rosenberg, a consultant at Boston's virtual security institute, said: "it's not surprising that the FBI failed to successfully access an activated Android device."Security investigator Christopher sogg exposed an authorization order on Wednesday, which was recently approved by a district judge in the San Diego area by FBI agent Jonathan kubina. In a court document, kubina wrote:
We were unable to obtain the information in this phone successfully because of the 'pattern unlocking' program installed on the phone Pattern unlocking 'is a new password program installed on electronic devices. To unlock a mobile phone, users must draw a pattern completely consistent with the preset unlocking pattern on the virtual keyboard with their fingers or stylus. Multiple wrong entries will cause the phone to lock automatically. You must use the corresponding Google account and password to pass, otherwise you will not be able to obtain the information in the phone's memory. I hope the court can authorize us to ask Google for relevant information through this investigation application, so as to obtain the important information we need to handle the case.
In a telephone interview, Dan Rosenberg suggested that the authorities could "disassemble the mobile phone and export relevant data directly from the physical original", but such violent cracking may damage the internal components of the mobile phone and cause the mobile phone data to never be recovered.Linda Davis, a spokeswoman for logicube in Los Angeles, said that the mobile data export software "cellxtracy" developed by logivube also provides services to local law enforcement agencies. The company's advertisement says the software can quickly and thoroughly export data from mobile devices. But Davis also confirmed in a telephone interview that they could not export data from a locked mobile phone.All these facts prove that Android's screen lock function is more powerful than we think.
We can't verify whether the iPhone encryption system is as powerful as Android phones, but in October 2010, the media exposed that the iPhone password can be easily cracked. Maybe Apple has improved it.Obviously, the FBI is not willing to admit their incompetence, but forced by the form, they have to ask Google for help. In the authorization order mentioned above, the FBI requires Google to provide the default password of Samsung devices "orally" or "detailed written instructions to crack the pattern unlocking system on Samsung sgh-t679 devices".Google spokesman Chris Geiser did not disclose whether Google would obey the authorization order. He said Google would not comment on this special situation. But he wrote in an email: "like all law-abiding enterprises, we will abide by the exact legal terms. When we receive such a request, we will first confirm that it is in line with the legal provisions and spirit, and then obey the request. If we think a request is too much, we will seek other solutions."
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