CRACKED

Researchers Find Bug in Apple Encryption

Specific flaw in iMessage app.

A team of researchers has reportedly found a flaw in Apple’s encryption that would allow malicious hackers to intercept photos and videos sent in the iMessages application. The group, led by Johns Hopkins University computer science professor Matthew D. Green, spent several months attacking phones using older operating systems, eventually figuring out how to retrieve photos off a mimicked Apple server. The researchers’ findings come as Apple and the FBI have locked horns over whether the tech company should write new software to allow investigators to access encrypted data on San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook’s iPhone. The university team’s specific iMessage-based experiment, however, would likely not have helped federal investigators access the data they seek from Farook’s phone.