US Justice Department renews push to mandate phone backdoor

[Becky]

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that members of the Justice Department in the USA are renewing their attempts to force tech companies to build in a 'backdoor' which would give law enforcement officials access to smart devices. This has been something officials have been trying to achieve for years now, but it has always been met with strong opposition due to the security concerns. Craig Federighi, Apple's senior VP of software engineering, issued a statement to NYT, as Apple Insider reports:

As part of the backdoor push, the FBI and Justice Department have been meeting with security researchers on ways of enabling "extraordinary access" to encrypted devices, Times sources said. As a result, Justice Department officials are claimed to be convinced it's possible to enable a backdoor without fatally weakening device security —the worry of companies like Apple.

The focus of at least some of the meetings has allegedly been on unlocking data on hardware, rather than intercepting encrypted cloud traffic. Specifically, one proposed concept is a special access key that would be generated whenever a device encrypts itself. This key would detour around passcodes, but only be stored locally in a separately encrypted space, much like the Secure Enclave on iPhones and iPads.

Read more here.