Police departments across Northeast Ohio are dealing with trying to get information from cell phones, daily.
In fact, it's what Jamie Walsh does at the Lake County Crime Lab most of the time. He extracted information from cell phones to help police crack cases. "The Apple iPhones are extremely hard to get into, the new ones are basically impossible," Walsh said.
Cell phones are a treasure trove of information and can be keys to unlocking crimes. "With today's criminals, their activity is on their cell phones," said Willoughby Police Detective Lieutenant Jim Schultz. "They use their cell phones for doing transactions, coordinating events, even logging locations," Schultz added.
But forensic technology for police was not keeping up with new cell phone advancements. For example, if police don't have the password they can not crack Apple's ironclad encryption. The FBI called the problem 'going dark.'
"If Apple puts in a backdoor into the iMessage and gives the FBI the key, others...are going to find a way to get into the same back door," said Nate Cardozo, Electronic Frontier Foundation Attorney.
