New York’s top prosecutor says that Apple’s encryption is hindering criminal investigations everywhere.
In prepared testimony set to be delivered at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance wrote that iPhone encryption “cripples even the most basic steps of a criminal investigation,” and it also prevents law enforcement from exonerating innocent people suspected of crimes.
Apple, which will be represented by its general counsel, Bruce Sewell, at the hearing, has argued that hackers and governments are becoming more proficient at breaking into phones. Encryption that even Apple can’t unlock could prevent, for example, the Chinese government from forcing Apple to unlock a phone owned by a Chinese dissident.
Apple has cited the First Amendment in its argument that the government cannot force it to create a software program to bypass San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s passcode.
Also testifying are FBI Director James Comey and cybersecurity professor Susan Landau.
Though Apple has chosen to fight the FBI in a very high-profile case of terrorism, Vance noted that state and local officials handle 95% of all criminal prosecutions in the United States. They deal with all sorts of criminals.
For example, Vance said his office has been frustrated in prosecuting three attempted murder suspects, people accused of sexually abusing a child, child pornographers, people charged with assault, robbers, and identity thieves among others.
Since Apple began encrypting iPhones by default in September 2014, Vance said his office has been locked out of 175 iPhones, or one quarter of the 670 Apple devices that his office’s Cyber Lab obtained from suspects. In each of those cases, his office had a valid search warrant to obtain the information on the suspects’ phones.