14 DAY TRIAL // While the United States is pushing for Apple to unlock password-protected iPhones and wants the industry to put backdoors into all electronics, Scotland has come up with an idea that’s very likely to work much smoother going forward.
Police Scotland will use so-called cyber kiosks to break into locked devices as part of criminal investigations, technically being able to extract the data without the need for any help from the company that manufactured the device.
While no specifics have been provided on how the cyber kiosks will be able to access data on password-protected smartphones, Scottish authorities say these machines will be installed in police stations across local policing divisions and will be operated by specially-trained officers.
No privacy invasion
What the police want is “information which may be of value to a police investigation or incident,” and analyzing devices at local stations allow those “that are not relevant to an investigation to be returned quicker.”
To address privacy concerns, Scotland Police say the new device hacking method won’t be abused and will be employed only according to the law.
“Police Scotland will only examine a digital device where there is a legal basis and where it is necessary, justified and proportionate to the incident or crime under investigation. Cyber kiosks used by Police Scotland will not be enabled to store data from digital devices. Once an examination is complete, all device data is securely deleted from the cyber kiosk,” it says.
The police have already purchased 41 such cyber kiosk, and it estimates that all will be able to break into locked devices by the end of May. The phased rollout will begin this month, so expect the first smartphones to be unlocked in the coming weeks.
