Giving Police Backdoor Access To Smartphones Is An Invitatation To Be Hacked

With both Android and iOS phones making privacy updates that will make it impossible for Google or Apple to unlock a device without a user’s passcode, even with a warrant, authorities from local police to the head of the FBI to the U.S. Attorney General are saying there should be some sort of backdoor way to gain access to these devices. But what they don’t realize is that leaving in that additional point of access just makes phones more vulnerable to other forms of snooping.

Over at the Washington Post, writer Craig Timberg puts it in pretty straightforward terms. He uses the analogy of a windowless, doorless brick building. Put any sort of opening in that structure and it’s not as secure.

“No matter how thick the door or tough the lock, the house is now more vulnerable to intrusion in at least three ways: The door can be battered down,” writes Timberg. “The keys can be stolen. And all the things that make doors work – the hinges, the lock, the door jamb – become targets for attackers. They need to defeat only one to make the whole system fail.”

More