The FBI treats this as if it was an inexhaustible resource. Crime committed - just break the phone and crime solved. Not so. A few big cases and people stop using phones in a way that leaves evidence around.
However, once you put a back door into phones, phones as safe repositories of personal data that could lead to ID theft are gone. If people get hacked because their phones are hacked and we are soon back to land lines (I actually only have a land line, so that would not bother me).
The FBI/police were able to solve most cases before phones and the incriminating information that they claim is in those phones. They relied on physical evidence and that physical evidence still exists.
Do phones create crime. Do people become crazed and decide to kidnap a child because they have a phone? Does the phone allow them to hide the other evidence of the kidnapping?
The US is spending billions on security every year. That should allow far better crime solving than ever before even without cracking phones.
Or, is all the money spent on show with no real results?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
