California Wants to Ban Encrypted Smartphones

[Abraham]

Ah, maybe I'm just being complacent, but I don't care what California does anymore that I care what Albania does...

[Jago668]

<sarcasm> No, you are looking at this all wrong. This is just a tool to aid law enforcement. It doesn't matter if they can search your phone without a warrant if they can't decrypt it. This will rightly allow them access to all the data on your phone when they execute their valid warrantless search. </sarcasm>

We actually had a SCOTUS ruling on this that they can't search your phone without a warrant. It came after the state court of kommiefornia ruled police could, and Ohio I believe that said police couldn't. Even more surprising from SCOTUS was that it was a unanimous decision.

[WildBill]

Ah, maybe I'm just being complacent, but I don't care what California does anymore that I care what Albania does...

First of all, I don't think it will pass. At least I really hope not.
But if it did it could cause some issues with phone manufacturers having to make California Compliant phones.
It would be a logistical nightmare to try to keep track of them, so a company might decide to make all of their phones California compliant.

[RossA]

So the only actual encryption on an iphone is the password? And if you have disabled the password requirement so that you can just go right into your phone each time, there is no encryption?

[WildBill]

So the only actual encryption on an iphone is the password? And if you have disabled the password requirement so that you can just go right into your phone each time, there is no encryption?

The password is not the encryption.
The password allows you to recover data that has been encrypted.
When you back up your phone on your computer or the cloud to can choose whether or not to encrypt certain data.

http://bgr.com/2016/01/22/iphone-androi ... -password/

[Taypo]

Within in 10 years, all cellphones will have a backdoor for GOVT access. Get your pre-ban while you can. I am amazed Apple has held out so long.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there's nothing on your cell now that can't be accessed by the provider or an agency with the tech.

[ScottDLS]

Within in 10 years, all cellphones will have a backdoor for GOVT access. Get your pre-ban while you can. I am amazed Apple has held out so long.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there's nothing on your cell now that can't be accessed by the provider or an agency with the tech.

My Android is memory encrypted with 256 bit cipher. Can you point to a case where someone has cracked with a brute force attack?

[rotor]

California: home of the world's biggest technology companies, terrible bagels, and the only place that can suffer both drought and floods at the same time.

Terrible bagels? You can't get a good garlic bagel in California. Reason enough not to go back.

[RossA]

Haven't there been instances where hackers have even broken into government databases? I would have to assume that those databases are pretty highly "protected." If hackers can get into those, I don't see why they couldn't get into someone's cell phone.

[Taypo]

Within in 10 years, all cellphones will have a backdoor for GOVT access. Get your pre-ban while you can. I am amazed Apple has held out so long.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there's nothing on your cell now that can't be accessed by the provider or an agency with the tech.

My Android is memory encrypted with 256 bit cipher. Can you point to a case where someone has cracked with a brute force attack?

I'm not talking about brute force. I'm talking about avoiding the phone altogether. Provider side will provide records, locations, texts, emails, etc. Honeypots or any of the other methods for pulling down voice.

Here's an example for you: The Couch kid was busted when mom ordered a pizza delivered. How do you think they got that info?

[Taypo]

California: home of the world's biggest technology companies, terrible bagels, and the only place that can suffer both drought and floods at the same time.

Terrible bagels? You can't get a good garlic bagel in California. Reason enough not to go back.

Mmmmm, bagels. I don't miss NY much, but bagels is one of those things that makes me wish I was closer...

[Smokey]

So for non-techie people like me, what the heck does this mean? Is my phone that I bought from Verizon encrypted? If a cop gets my phone, he can just look at what's on there without any fancy tech stuff happening. Just like I do every time I pick it up.

I don't know about Android phones. However, on an iPhone, the passcode is the encryption. That's the number (simple) or password (complex) one enters to unlock the decice. Apple has said they don't have the ability to, with the current coding, to overcome a user's passcode. They have refused to write a back door into the OS to allow themselves to do so. Such a back door can be exploited by a hacker.

On android phones there is a separate step that must be taken to encrypt the phone. The device has to be charged and plugged in and it can take an hour to do.

It can slow down an Older device but with a newer one you might not notice.

One huge is that if you lose your phone and someone else finds it they will not be an able to get into it even if they plug it into a computer. I would highly recommend encrypting any phone.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+encrypt+android

[Solaris]

Within in 10 years, all cellphones will have a backdoor for GOVT access. Get your pre-ban while you can. I am amazed Apple has held out so long.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there's nothing on your cell now that can't be accessed by the provider or an agency with the tech.

Properly utilized, authorities nor Apple can break into an iphone. Steve Cook and James Comey unanimously agree on this. Certain messaging apps are are also undecryptable.

[Solaris]

Here's an example for you: The Couch kid was busted when mom ordered a pizza delivered. How do you think they got that info?

I hate to break it to you, but this had nothing to do with a encrypted cell phone.