James Comey, a senior FBI official dislike Apple and Google’s latest smartphones because of their high-end encryption.The latest devices and operating systems (iOS8 and Android Lollipop) have encryption turned on by default, implying that no master key is available with Apple or Google to be passed on to investigators.
“Encryption threatens to lead all of us to a very dark place. Justice may be denied because of a locked phone or an encrypted hard drive,” said James Comey, FBI Director, in a speech last month.
“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants”,Apple confirms on its website.
Encrypted data guarantees transfer of data secured through a digital lock that cannot be easily picked. Encryption is widely used in most of the web-mail services and net based transfer of data. However, in iOS8 and Android Lollipop, the encryption key is stored on the device itself instead of appearing on multiple servers. The key is generated and stored on device and even the manufacturers cannot seek the key to decrypt the device.
This is vexing the investigating officials who want the Apple and Google to relax their robustness. On the other hand, users are quite relaxed that their data cannot be sucked out of their phone or computers.
Companies like Apple and Google will make a big mistake if they pat themselves on the back for making encryption the default on a new device and don’t keep working just as hard to secure the network services that give those gadgets life.
