India has mobile forensic tools to hack into iPhones

The case of the FBI seeking to force Apple to provide backdoor access to the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone focused attention on security and encryption once again. The agency may have been able to gain access to the phone with help from a third party, but the Indian government has gone one better.

Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has revealed that the government has a tool that can be used to gain access to, among other devices, Apple's iPhone. This is not to say that a tool has been created that bypasses encryption, rather that a method for getting past the lockscreen has been developed.

Speaking at the Parliament of India, Prasad said: "As part of a program, a tool for mobile forensics has been developed, which handles smart phones including Apple phones". He went on to say that there were no plans to implement the tool as a backdoor, implying that it was something that would only be used on as-and-when basis.

The minister said that the tool had come about as part of a continuous process of research and development rather than being a case of singling out iPhones for particular attention. Prasad does not reveal which other handsets and devices the government is able to access, but smartphone users will be pleased at Prasad's admission that a universal encryption key has not been developed.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ymgerman