Cellphone Encryption?

[Big Data]

I was reading this story on the San Bernardino terrorists and how the FBI can't access their cellphone: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...209-story.html

Got me thinking about cellphone encryption, not for calls, but for the contents of the phone itself.

I think Apple has complete encryption built into the phone so all contents are encrypted when the phone is locked or powered off. The encryption key is unknown to Apple and is encoded at the hardware level.

Android phones do something similar but not as secure as an iPhone, and encryption maybe lost after an OS upgrade? Don't know what Android does with removable SD cards, is that data encrypted?

Any comments on phone encryption from the experts here? I wonder if the SB terrorists used an iPhone?

[Brutmor]

Android uses something like LUKS to encrypt the partition starting your data. It's a decent implementation, but you need a good device password to make it secure.

http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2014/10/revisiting-android-disk-encryption.html?m=1

With android 4.4's cryptography improvements:

As you can see, trying 1200 PIN combinations requires almost 5 minutes, so recovering a simple PIN is no longer instantaneous. That said, cracking a short PIN or password is still very much feasible, so choosing a strong locksreen password (or a dedicated disk encryption password, when possible) is still very important.

[Brutmor]

A "good" password is a long password using more of the available character set like lower case, upper case, numbers, and symbols.

[glockman19]

I was reading this story on the San Bernardino terrorists and how the FBI can't access their cellphone: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...209-story.html

Got me thinking about cellphone encryption, not for calls, but for the contents of the phone itself.

I think Apple has complete encryption built into the phone so all contents are encrypted when the phone is locked or powered off. The encryption key is unknown to Apple and is encoded at the hardware level.

Android phones do something similar but not as secure as an iPhone, and encryption maybe lost after an OS upgrade? Don't know what Android does with removable SD cards, is that data encrypted?

Any comments on phone encryption from the experts here? I wonder if the SB terrorists used an iPhone?

+1 for I-phones

[hermosabeach]

My I phone pass word is 10 digits... it is a starting point...

[Loui3]

having more then the 4 digit in the iphone is good but remember turn off or never setup the finger button to unlock your iphone. its point less to have a long password if your finger is your key...hahaha

Other thing use a VPN to encrypt your browsing or anything you do.

[Flyliner]

Everyone needs to be fighting this bill:

California lawmaker wants to ban phone encryption in 2017

California lawmaker, State Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), has introduced a bill that would effectively ban the sale of mobile devices that have encryption on by default beginning in 2017. The bill, AB 1681, demands that any phone sold after January 1, 2017 be "capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider."

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/21/california-lawmaker-wants-to-ban-phone-encryption-in-2017/

[Brutmor]

Everyone needs to be fighting this bill:

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/21/c...ption-in-2017/

I joined the EFF last week. Their litigation is impressive.

https://www.eff.org/cases

[Big Data]

Agreed. Thanks for the link.

Everyone needs to be fighting this bill:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/21/c...ption-in-2017/

[the86d]

Everyone needs to be fighting this bill:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/21/c...ption-in-2017/

I wonder if it to be enforced by the cyber police, like illegally unlocking cellphones is right now...

[Big Data]

I wonder if the SB terrorists used an iPhone?

Why yes they did: http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/...nadino-shooter

[ocabj]

The mitigating issue with a 'short' pin to unlock an iPhone is if you have it set to erase the phone contents after 10 failed passcode attempts.

[Brutmor]

The mitigating issue with a 'short' pin to unlock an iPhone is if you have it set to erase the phone contents after 10 failed passcode attempts.

The FBI is requesting a special build of firmware so there's no lockout and the passwords are submitted over some other communication port instead of the on screen keyboard.

The essence is, a pin is useless to protect your data from a determined attacker.