“If you don’t want your text messages to be wire-tapped, you might consider getting yourself an iPhone,” Adrian Covert reports for CNNMoney.
“Apple’s seemingly innocuous iMessage app is giving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency endless amounts of grief, because law enforcement is not able to trace and track text message conversations sent via Apple’s service,” Covert reports. “Though iMessage was introduced in 2011, DEA investigators only last month discovered that iMessages were not traceable.”
MacDailyNews Take: Government efficiency.
Covert reports, “While it is possible to try to directly extract the data from the iPhone’s hardware, Technology Review pointed out that it’s extremely difficult to get anything from the phone if it is password-protected and is set to wipe its memory after a set number of failed logins.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
And all along I thought the DEAs worst nightmare was legalized pot, which would put a huge dent in their hiring…..
Good point, TT. And think of the industrial incarceration complex and the money it will lose if pot is legalized in more states.
The DEA is the legalized wing of the mafia.
Before you go and use iMessage while founding your criminal empire, read this:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130405/01485922590/dea-accused-leaking-misleading-info-falsely-implying-that-it-cant-read-apple-imessages.shtml
The bottom line: Apple stores all your iMessages. When faced with a subpoena, they will in all likelihood reveal all to the Feds. Further, iMessage stores ALL your iMessages. The Feds go use the Way Back machine to see what you’ve been up to.
The only “security” advantage to iMessage is that it cannot be read while in transmission.
Yet.
wonderful news – and – happy to help the feds if needed
well said… and to Apple – PLEASE keep iMessage untraceable.
Plus, Apple, please find aways to jump between FaceTime and iMessage in a seamless way as if both apps are one.
When it comes to video / texting – BOTH Yahoo and Skype fail in this regards… Apple should bridge its solution so things can seem more fluent.
A likely good idea: If you have current, serious encryption software, keep a backup of it handy for the future. Something tells me there is going to be considerable pressure from various directions to BACK DOOR current encryption software in order to allow surveillance, be it warranted or traitorous. That means our currently most excellent encryption software may well be ‘updated’ with back doors.
Please note that I do not write this stuff in order to enable crime, but to PREVENT crime via our Corporate Oligarchy and other nefarious, unconstitutional, illegal interests who have no respect for our innate right to personal privacy. Seeing as the US government ALREADY is well known to pull these illegal surveillance stunts on US citizens inside the USA WITHOUT warrants, entirely unconstitutional, We The People are entirely entitled to fight back by enforcing our citizen rights. Sorry Big Gov. That’s the fact. Deal with it.
excellent point Derek – and we the people are whom elect to have those govern, hence if not as we wish, we should insist on change – its our right.
PS – I believe in privacy – and not encourage illegal behaviour by maintaining iMessage or FaceTime untraceable… I just congratulate Apple for AGAIN protecting the consumers in ways we (most) don’t even realize.
Never perfect, always better that the others: Apple.
http://bth.mn/imessage2skype/
Not that it matters to me…
but can the US DEA track Skype messages?
the above link is a new application that will basically forward your text messages from iMessage to your Skype account… if you have one.
For me, FaceTime, just needs a smooth slick app integration – perhaps by overlaying the video chat at times with a notification or text input method for use with iMessage that would run at the same time as FaceTime. Hence, no need to jump back and forth with the two apps running on iOS.
Of that I am ignorant. I can go all paranoid and point out that Microsoft now code Skype…
A particularly private pal of mine likes to use the encryption built into Jabber. I don’t know how effective it is, but I seem to recall it is 128 bit AES.
This should drive sales up and AAPL higher.
In this lunatic desperation stock market? You might as well wish upon a star. The blatant, hateful, self-destructive Wall Street manipulators are incapable of making sense. They just want the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
@TT:
Wonder if they do any hiring in Colorado ?
… but .. I would think if they can’t crack it … then wouldn’t it be smart to …
Never update your iMessage ..?
Actually I did, thanks.
And then last night my iPhone mysteriously signed itself back out again (actually I’m not sure when it did, I discovered it last night).
Same goes for my MacBook Pro on occasion, although my desktop seems to never have the issue.
I’m wondering if it is a safety precaution because I use them on so many different networks….?
We haf our vays… 😆
“Government efficiency.”
This is such a cliched “joke” that I think everyone who makes it should receive an electric shock and be forced to learn and recite ten examples of private industry inefficiency that happened in just the *30 seconds* prior to their lame-ass, anti-government joke.
Cliche because it is true. We can make the joke because, unlike industry, we are forced to fund government projects. If you don’t like how a company is run..you don’t buy their products. Not true for the government. Paying almost 8% sales tax…then giving them 10 thousands per year of my hard earned money…I have good reason to questions their “business practices.”
there’s the border
I’d want to add “military intelligence” to the list you just started. Another candidate might be “the wisdom of the market.”
What’s the descriptive word? Oh yes:
Oxymoron.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oxymoron
BTW: It’s not innately ‘government’ that is anyone’s enemy.
It’s psychopaths, puppets, propagandists and porkers who make ‘government’ into a hell hole of stupidity, corruption and waste. Blame the people who ARE the bogus institution. ‘Government’ is just another name for a gang of specific people and their collective behavior, be it brilliant or bozoid.
Polite applause.
Colourful and, I think, true.
The only problem with a cliche is that it devalues rational thought in favor of instinct.
The cliche was once so powerfully true of something that it became a catchphrase, a shortcut for a series of thoughts.
After that it got routinely applied as a defining characteristic of the original thing.
A definition altered in this way is not susceptible to analysis (“taking apart”) because the catchphrase has condensed into a monoid without parts of its own.
Yes, those parts can be recovered from history, but only with effort, which is rarely undertaken: thus cliche becomes an impediment to rational thought by having shrunk in diameter, obscuring possible bias or flaw, and erasing the original reference point that was present in the idea to start with.
I don’t know whether to applaud you or be flabbergasted.
True. My first thought upon reading “government inefficiency” sas exactly as you said but without the fluff.
It would appear that you have cultivated cognitive bypass methodologies that allow a full range of analytical techniques to be applied to a problem, rather than allow the experiential hard-wired expected value algorithms to dictate your social behavior. 🙂
LOL. Mind blown and completely flabbergasted.
Go Hannah! I love it!
Correct, sir.
Government & inefficiency are like cigarettes & cancer. You cannot disprove the link.
You must the the ghost of Hugo Chavez to speak of even larger government.
I’ve long felt that every aspect of government should be handled by the military and budgetary issues should be considered def con 1.
That would be the only way to ensure quick and concise government.
Government is like that bloated beached whale lying helpless on the sand thrashing about that cannot help itself without voraciously consuming taxpayers’ money to support itself.
The best thing that can happen is to line up all government officials and shoot them like the dogs that they are, starting with the empty suit in the WH.
Sorry to burst your bubble but by definition government requires the support and financial support of the people. We sign on for government. The alternative is anarchy.
Um, did you just advocate shooting the president? Glad I’m not you.
And so you have an entirely new line of empty suits lined up to replace those you just shot?
I didn’t know Stalin was still alive.
Where did he speak of or advocate a larger government?
LMAO @ MDN Take. Kingpins, distributors, dealers and users have probably been using iMessage for two years now and these clowns finally get around to discovering it. It’s prohibition all over again. What a colossal waste of money.
And this is the same stodgy, lifeless entity that some want in charge of our health care, among other things.
Ronald Reagan said it best: the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
And Ronald Reagan was employed by whom?
As President? The American people.
As is everyone in the government.
Well played Sir, well played.
@CitizenX; thanks. Reagan, AFAIC, was a great con man. He was able to convince a substantial portion of the population that he was acting in the interests of the average American. The statement “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
rises to the level of Orwellian doublespeak. Of course Reagan was from the government. Of course he was also in the pocket of big business. His “supply side economics” was a con game to further line the pockets of the wealthy. He tapped into an anti-government sentiment that already existed among a large sector of Americans, but rather than try to make the government actually do its proper job, he began the process of selling it off to the corporate interests.
Yep.
These people don’t realize that it is not government inefficiency that is the problem but big business ownership of government.
We are supposed to have government of, by and for the people. Government is supposed to protect the interests of the citizens. Of course the government is often inefficient and wasteful, partly due to those within it and outside it who have turned steered it away from its true purpose. But it is not “government” that is the problem — the problem is the hijacking of government by money interests. These interests have a lot to gain by convincing the American people that it is corporations who have the best interests of the public at heart and turning people away from true democratic governance.
Is it clear that the DEA have only just DISCOVERED it?
Or is it that the discovery has only just been publicised?
It’s the kind of thing they would have done well to keep quiet about!
Anyway, completely agree – legalisation is the way forward.
Sheesh. Government may not be efficient” but you all have benefited mightily from the government.
Get over yourselves.
“MacDailyNews Take: Government efficiency.”
Statement of an idiot.
That’s not the point, CitiX.
Government is not efficient. Period.
They may do things no others can or will, but that doesn’t make them ‘efficient’, it makes them ‘necessary’….
The point is whether business or government tried to crack encryption or iMessage you would get the same result. They would be unable to as it stands now.
It may have taken government 2 years to realize they were having a problem because it probably took just as long for it be be widely used and to become a problem. Flying under the radar so to speak since it is only a lowly Mac messaging system.
To just knee jerk spout “government inefficiency” show it to be just that. Knee jerk.
By the way. How efficient is business. Do you really want to take the position that there is no inefficiency in business?
What about the inefficiency in the stock market? Apple at 423 when they s**t more money in profits than many other companies with higher stock prices.
Most business is exponentially more efficient than just about any part of government. That doesn’t mean they are honest, beneficial to all and not dangerous in some form, but they have to survive.
Speaking of knee-jerks, looks like you just had a few concerning food. Maybe if the economy was better so many families wouldn’t require both parents work 1 or 2 jobs and a need for super cheap fast food. Just a thought.
And BTW, Capitalism requires a STRONG government, but not necessarily an overbearing one. Finding that balance is an ongoing battle that is losing to the overbearing side for now. Coincidence things are bad?
I guess out of the other side of your neck in a different forum you would be railing against the big 3 auto makers for being “inefficient”. Or am I wrong in that? Maybe you would be railing against all the too big to fail banks that had to be bailed out?
I have a feeling that you want your “cake” but want to pretend like the cake comes from the benevolence of “efficient business”.
I use fast food as an example. Next time you eat pork, than the inefficient government that you don’t get Trichinosis.
Oh wait. Farmer john in his concern for your safety and health will spend the extra dollars to ensure that his hogs are tested and their meat is inspected before you buy it.
crickets… crickets… crickets….
“And BTW, Capitalism requires a STRONG government, but not necessarily an overbearing one. Finding that balance is an ongoing battle that is losing to the overbearing side for now. Coincidence things are bad?”
So where does overbearing and strong collide? I think most people, especially the ones that would make the inane claim of “inefficient government” don’t know the difference.
That is the problem. They will get up each morning after having slept soundly and free from harm because of government mandated safety systems, eat safe food, drive a safe car on a safe road to a safe office building or factory, do a good job and make an adequate living while their kids are schooled in an “adequate” environment and …. etc.
You get my point. But then they get a few beers in them and they want to rail against the government.
Again… SHEESH!
Might want to keep any open flames away from that straw man you’ve created.
All your points have nothing to do with government efficiency.
Has nothing to do with the need for government.
Has nothing to do with some businesses.
Has nothing to do with banking.
Has to do with the fact that government is inefficient, even in its best form.
You seem to think that anyone that utters a word against the Feds is a toothless hick that isn’t bright enough to see its need.
Apparently most people see a need for government, some want more, some less.
But I’ve never met ANYONE making the asinine assumption that people are too stupid to see a need for government just because they recognize its inefficiency.
Get over it.
And “government efficiency” isn’t the ultimate straw man?
Oh my God, I just realized you must work for the Post Office, DMV, DA, DOT or something that is causing you to take this so personal.
No one else in their right mind would be so offended by a known-known…or do you think it reflects on Obama and not any other President? Is it now racist to say government is inefficient?
(at least I didn’t say ‘Chicago’…doh!)
I don’t understand your argument enough to even reply to it other than to say when you make a joke about a reality it is not a made up ‘straw-man’ fallacy.
No, I actually never worked for any government agency. i never said or intimated anything about Obama so you can let your guard down.
What you can’t deny is that without government regulations you would be one sickly, working for 1.25 cent an hour worthless pile of nothing, driving an unsafe car on muddy roads. Your children would be uneducated and just as sickly as your pathetic ass.
Steam engines are efficient, governments aren’t.
Efficiency is a thermodynamic concept that was lifted by business theorists long ago to measure such things as worker productivity and assembly-line yield.
It began to be applied to government “output” in the 20th century as a justification for cost-cutting, but never acquired traction as a useful metric and was reduced to a casual polemical tool.
To this day, there is no widespread acknowledgement that any human organization, much less the government of a world state, exhibits in its design or its execution anything like optimal material economy or good husbandry, simplicity, elegance, fairness, or justice, or anything else. It’s a human thing; it’s bound to be messy, inexact, suboptimal.
The only real argument is in its subjects’ preferences for particular articles of government, or the form of government itself.
Meanwhile, the lawyers continue to get richer. Cue Shakespeare, Henry VI ,Part 2.
The government is not meant to be efficient. Its function is to provide services that would not, or could not otherwise be provided. UPS is more efficient than the Post Office because the mail goes everywhere, not just where there’s a profit to be made. Under government regulation, airlines provided service to areas that don’t now have it. Yes, fares under deregulation are probably lower than they would otherwise be, but there are simply no flights anymore to places that aren’t profitable.
Those who argue for privatization invariably have the attitude that if someone can’t make a profit from serving you, you shouldn’t be served. That’s a problem when it comes to things like health care, wherein, if you’re not served you die.
“Steam engines are efficient,”
Apparently not as efficient as diesel….;-)
Given the choice I would much prefer to receive only defense, roads, postal service , etc from the federal government.
(well would be at least as happy with UPS and Fedex)
Beyond that its all dubious. American individuals and groups made up of like-minded individuals do a better job of taking care of each other.
No doubt some will disagree. LOL
Ah yes, leave it up to McDonalds to give you quality beef in your hamburger. Or maybe let Con-Agra decide how many insect heads you have in your dinner.
We all know the big bad wolf government has nothing better to do than try to improve the quality of your life. Sorta like taking that “promote the general welfare” thing to the extreme ensuring that your products and food are safe. Or that the car you buy won’t contribute to your death.
Got Pinto?
“American individuals and groups made up of like-minded individuals do a better job of taking care of each other.”
You are one silly boy.
Tell that to the fellow I know who contracted cancer, was treated, recovered and was fired from his medium sized company because their health insurance provider raised their premiums as long as he remained on the payroll. His anticipated pension when he would have retired was also lost. That’s how American business takes care of its own.
Tell that to the widow whose husbands medical bills forced her to take their small business into bankruptcy. She’s now looking at scraping by the rest of her life on the lowest levels of Social Security. They got taken care of all right.
Tell that to the mothers forced to put out donation jars at convenience stores, trying to raise enough money for their child’s medical bills, so they can continue receiving treatment. The health care providers are really taking care of them (as long as they pay). Americans, every one.
You can attempt to engage in magical thinking if you want. But eventually reality sets in for everyone.
Everything can be hacked. This is just to get the bad guys (not always the smartest people in the world) to use iMessage. Even fanboys know better than to believe this. The government. They read our emails. They listen to our phone calls. They know where we are and they know where we’ve been through our cell phones and credit cards. Yeah, they can’t follow iMessage. Riiiiiiiiiiiight!
Actually, according to top cryptanalysts (Daemen, Ferguson, Mao, RIjmen, Stinson, Schneier, etc.), if you use 256 bit AES encryption for messaging, which can be done via hardware* or software, then it isn’t crackable in transit. Prepending the AES-key using either RSA or elliptic curve crypto (with large enough keys) makes this a public key system that’s essentially uncrackable. (Of course, physical access to the machine changes this.) But this has been true since 2001…
Going further back, Phil Zimmermann’s PGP made email secure (at least, outside an the NSA’s specific attack) for everyone. His story’s a good read on the security v. privacy dynamic.
* There’s a small company in Raleigh, NC, that designed a chip with native Galois field GF(2^8) arithmetic just to put AES in anyone’s hand.
I have used PGP for a long time. But I’ll stick with my original thought on iMessage.
Yep and if you do an out of band (offline) initial key exchange or use any kind of one time pad for keys out of band then you are golden unless they are already “on your phone”
Sure they’ll crack it someday but you’ll be dead and in the ground by then.
At this time, the single weakest link in ANY encryption scheme is the password created to access it. IOW: Human error, the ‘LUSER’ factor, as per usual.
I could not agree more. Truth man.
The most common passwords are still “password”, “Fluffy”, etc. Despite IT best-practice user direction, people just do not want to bother with, much less memorize, strong passwords like “hJC59mq-85RghhFOOL.”
All the more reason you can’t be too careful on the interwebs these days. By all means, share pix of your family and pets on Facebook—but give them all aliases.
How did you know “hJV59mq-85RghhFOOL .” is my password? Damn! I guess I’ll go back to using Fluffy again.
Apple controls iMessage not the carriers. The DEA will need to get apple to cooperate. May they never do so.
I have a have a problem with law enforcement being able to read my messages.
I have a HUGE problem with ANY OTHER branch of government being able to read them.
That is the real problem.
There are national security laws in place that can give the government access to iMessage or any other data. Don’t assume anything is private.
As far as government efficiency goes, many aspects of government are now as, or more efficient than their private counterparts, but this is not a political forum so that discussion should likely occur elsewhere.
Sounds like bullshit to lull people into using iMessage for their criminal activity so they can all be swept up all at once.
there are nice apps out there that provide public key encryption over a variety of mediums including SMS.
Personally I wouldn’t drug deal without one of them being deemed a “standard” in my organization. If I dealt drugs that is.
1 more reason to get an iPhone iPad or Mac
The DEA has too much power.
The US constitution is the DEA’s worst nightmare. The war on drugs is a crime.
-jcr
Yep. iMessage isn’t traceable but that “efficient business” will be eager to turn over the information to the “inefficient government”.
In exchange for something or other.
Which is a reason to trust business even less than government, which tends to have more citizen oversight, however flawed or insufficient.
“Trust me, I’m from Enron.”
No doubt! Who cares about draining Grandma Millies bank account.
“iMessage isn’t traceable but that “efficient business” will be eager to turn over the information to the “inefficient government.”
Eager, why is that?
To surrender efficient business rights away to second rate inefficient government. That’s your point?
Bottom line: Trust nimble business more than government largess.
They how to make leaner profits with far less government oversight, overpaid union contracts and non-existent citizen control.
What?
No, ask ATT and other providers that gave up the goods after 9/11 in spite of Constitutional guarantees of privacy.
You will rue the day the government becomes “efficient” in spying on you.
Sheesh. Think man. Jebus.
CitizenX, unfourtunately your NOT paying attention.
“You will rue the day the government becomes “efficient” in spying on you.”
NO, moron!
Pay attention, please.
Oh please. You my friend need to pay attention to the fact that you don’t have anything to say so you tell me to “pay attention”. The last refuge of a weak mind.
Did you really have a point to make. I would rather read about the government unable to monitor iMessage that about ATT allowing the government to monitor iMessage.
Seems you need to get your priorities straight. Or are you confused?
Oh, please.
Again, you FAIL to pay attention and offer petty distractions.
“You will rue the day the government becomes “efficient” in spying on you.” Possibly, when it comes to iMessage?
Priorities straight yet, preacher?
So let me get this straight. You will celebrate the fact that the government has a handle of iMessage and is not having a problem with it?
I’m confused. What is it you are actually saying. What point are you trying to make?
Obviously, I am not intelligent enough to understand your all encompassing mind so let me in on the secret!
Clarification: I agree with you about the government unable to monitor iMessage. Not now, not ever.
That said, Apple, AT&T and others are potentially ripe for government intrusion. The way the present administration is dumping on the constitution it may only be a matter of time. Example: The deafening daily drumbeat for more gun control.
If the government truly worked and practiced genuine progress, they would look to Apple to incorporate the best technology for hundreds of reasons, thousands of users and benefit millions of citizens.
Nice six-guns, CX. BTW, are you allowed to open carry in your hometown? 🙂
Thanks for the clarification.
There is already plenty of gun control. There has been for quite a while.
Deafening daily drumbeat? Let’s not get into this as nothing will be solved.
The picture is from a freer time when the world and the US was full of promise.
I live in CA.
I don’t have the MDN option on my computer to respond to your latest comment. If out of order just letting you know, CX.
The drumbeat comment was not intended to kick off a gun control debate.
Instead, simply the most applicable present day example directed at the media carrying the administration’s water, on a regular basis, for many issues and our underlying hope iMessage will not be included.
Since you mentioned plenty of gun laws and I agree, only one point on the subject. Seem to recall over 20,000 gun laws now on the books in the U.S. and when was the last time a criminal obeyed the law? Even a young child knows the answer.
“The picture is from a freer time when the world and the US was full of promise.”
Indeed!
Love it. Great photo full of innocence, freedom and bright hope for the future. Comfort food, old movies, Grandma’s house and other memories come to mind … 🙂
@CitizenX @CoalCracker
I’d want you both in my foxhole come the revolution. In an existential jam, we’d find common ground in a hurry.
I’ve been packed and ready to go for a while.
Apple, fighting big brother since 1984.
Although Gov’s invasion of personal privacy is a cause for concern, if you are not a criminal and don’t have any illegal “dirt” that you don’t want the Gov to find out, you have nothing to fear from the Gov.
my 2 cents…
“if you are not a criminal … you have nothing to fear from the Gov.”
Seriously?!?! That comment is just plain nuts!
Are you a troll or just hopelessly naive? Go read something about history. The government puts innocent people in jail for decades. It assassinates people overseas with no judicial process, and, when asked, has specifically avoided promising not to do that to U.S. citizens sitting in their own homes.
The idea that innocent people have nothing to fear from the government is pathetically ignorant. Wow, just wow.
This weeks inane comment between individuals with an expectation of privacy is next weeks conspiracy to cross state lines to commit goD knows what crime.
Wake up. Sheesh.
If you were the DEA, isn’t this exactly what you would leak AFTER you had cracked iMessage?
Many of you underestimate the US Gov’t efficiency. There are many departments of the government that are very efficient. The DEA isn’t the code breaking group. The code breaking group would have no problem at all breaking the security of an iPhone. And besides, sometimes the brute force method (while not the most efficient) is the easiest way to solve a problem.
I remember RIM facing serious issues in some countries (Saudi Arabia,…) because their BB Messenger service was encrypted and could not be hacked by local authorities. They finally opened ‘back doors’ for them (facing the thread of being banned). I wonder how that works with iMessage…
Adrian Covert?
That is about as likely to be a real name as this story is to be true.
One word: honeypot.
This is all rather silly. The true “professionals” out there in illegal drug trade or other activities aren’t using iPhones to conduct their business on. At least not the higher ups. They have burner phones, or they have everything routed in such a way that it is almost impossible to trace.
This only affects the street dealers, etc. And really doesn’t affect them much, either. If anyone really thinks the DEA, FBI, etc. etc. haven’t already found a way to monitor iMessage, you’re willfully blind.
It’s time for us to end the Drug War. Legalize and tax drugs. Take the new taxes and spend that on treatment, public health, and deficit reduction. Release drug-only offenders from jail. Save boatloads of cash by closing DEA, ending arrests and prosecution of drug crimes, closing useless prisons housing people who should be in treatment facilities.