Local Police Seek Device That Can Crack iPhones

SEATTLE, WA — A powerful tool that can unlock a range of iPhone, iPod, and iPad models in minutes may soon be available to Seattle police, and possibly other local police departments. SPD is in the process of acquiring GrayKey, a device that appeared on the market in February and is being used by federal and local police departments nationwide to quickly break through the iPhone's security features.

Seattle's child sex task investigators have requested GrayKey, Seattle police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said. Other SPD investigators could still use GrayKey. It's also possible that Seattle could share use of the device with other departments around the state during joint investigations.

Unlike many other high-tech tools Seattle police use, GrayKey will not go through a review under the city's surveillance ordinance. Instead, GrayKey will undergo a "privacy review" by the city's chief technology officer. That type of review does not allow for public comment, according to Seattle IT spokeswoman Megan Erb, although City Council could still review the device.

A public comment process is precisely what civil liberties experts say is needed with such powerful and relatively unknown new technology.

"For a tool like this, the best practice would be to put it out for public comment and see what the concerns are," said Shankar Narayan director of the technology and liberty project at the ACLU of Washington.

Seattle police have been interested in getting GrayKey since at least March, according to documents obtained by Patch. The King County Sheriff's Office is also interested in the device, documents show.

Where GrayKey Came From

GrayKey was created by an Atlanta-based startup called Grayshift, which was co-founded by a former Apple engineer. The tool officially went on sale in March. But the need for the technology dates to the December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, when Syed Rizwan Farook 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, walked into a holiday party for county employees in an adult care center and opened fire. They killed 14 and wounded another 17 before being killed in a shootout with police.

As part of the investigation, the FBI sought access to Farook's locked iPhone 5C . The FBI asked Apple to unlock it for them, but the tech giant refused, fearing a dangerous legal precedent. The FBI eventually dropped its request and hired the Israeli tech company Cellebrite for $1 million to unlock the phone. Cellebrite has since been the standard for phone cracking in law enforcement.

(SPD has been using Cellebrite to unlock phones, which cost as much as $2,400 per phone.)

But the dispute between the FBI and Apple opened up a new market for technology that could quickly and cheaply help police break into phones.

GrayKey marketing materials obtained by Patch show the device can crack a range of iPhone models, from the 5 to the iPhone X, which was released in November 2017. The tool costs $15,000 for 300 uses, or $30,000 for an upgraded version with unlimited uses. It appears Seattle is aiming to get the $15,000 version.

The tool itself is just a small, gray box with two lighting cables sticking out of the front. To use it, you simply plug an iOS device into one of the lightning cables, and then wait. GrayKey guesses passwords until it gets the right one, meanwhile circumventing security features that usually disable iOS devices after too many wrong password attempts.

Use By The ICAC Task Force

Seattle police began discussions about obtaining GrayKey as early as March. In one exchange, officers highlighted that GrayKey was significantly more powerful and cheaper than Cellebrite, and recommended the department switch to the newer tool.

On March 9, Darin Sugai, a detective with the police department's criminal intelligence unit, sent an email to Sgt. Eric Chartrand touting GrayKey's superiority and asking for approval to get it. A few days before, on March 7, GrayKey sent Sugai a sales quote for the $15,000 version of GrayKey.

"By obtaining this product, the process of extracting information from iOS devices stays in-house, saving time and money, and can be used for any criminal investigation. It can also support other units tasked with cell phone extractions," Sugai wrote.

Investigators working with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force would be the main user of GrayKey, Whitcomb told Patch. The ICAC is a national network of federal and local law enforcement agencies. In Washington, multiple departments often work cases together. Seattle police might, for example, work with Olympia police on a case, depending on where the victims and suspects live.

The King County Sheriff's Office was planning to view a demo of GrayKey, documents showed. In fact, police departments from Anchorage, Alaska, to Suffolk County, New York, were excited about the possibilities. (A public records request made in April for documents related to King County's quest for GrayKey was still being processed as of this week.)

There are few sources showing how GrayKey has been used during criminal investigations. In July, Forbes reported on a New York City case where police asked a judge to let them crack an iPhone owned by someone accused of selling crack to undercover officer. The suspect's attorney told Forbes he's concerned that GrayKey could alter data on the phone

“I can’t know it doesn’t change something on the phone. I don’t suspect them of doing something malicious, but the nature of code and technology, there are mistakes,” the attorney told Forbes.

Investigators would still have to get a search warrant to use GrayKey, Whitcomb said, unless the phone's owner consented to a search. The department will not have a formal policy around the device, however.

"We have general policies related to search and seizure," Whitcomb said. "GrayKey is simply a tool, like fingerprint dust."

Seattle's Tricky History With Surveillance

GrayKey will not be reviewed under the city's surveillance ordinance because, the IT spokeswoman said, it doesn't meet the definition of "surveillance" as outlined in the law.

That definition: "[O]bserve or analyze the movements behavior, or actions of identifiable individuals in a manner that is reasonably likely to raise concerns about civil liberties, freedom of speech or association, racial equity or social justice."

Instead, GrayKey will get a "full privacy review."

"[T]he full privacy review is through the CTO office and the Chief Privacy Officer as well. It is the same questions for both the privacy and surveillance. What it doesn’t include is the financial aspect and the public comment if it’s not designated as a surveillance tool. We submit this report in the CTO quarterly report and the Council can decide if more review is needed," Erb told Patch via email.

The City Council first adopted a surveillance ordinance in 2013, a year that included controversies involving police surveillance capabilities. First, the police department ended its controversial unmanned drone program. Later that year, The Stranger revealed that SPD had installed a wireless mesh network in the downtown area, which had the capability to track the movements of cellphones and other wireless devices. The mesh network was never used, according to Seattle police, and is in the process of being dismantled.

The ordinance was updated in 2017 after another surveillance controversy. SPD acquired the service Geofeedia, which mapped social media posts in real-time. That prompted Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez to revisit the surveillance ordinance. The 2013 version was replaced with the one signed by former Mayor Ed Murray in August 2017.

Outside Seattle, Tacoma has been sued over using the tool stingray, which acts like a cellphone tower, allowing police to capture call data from criminal targets and anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity.

Best To Have 'Daylight'

By skipping the surveillance ordinance process, the public will have little say in Seattle's acquisition of GrayKey. The ordinance would allow City Council to vote on the acquisition, and require the department to release detailed reports on how the tool is used, such as with license plate readers.

The department's acquisition of GrayKey, therefore, could become another public relations blunder, the ACLU's Shankar Narayan said.

"It would be very smart for SPD to bring some transparency around the tool. Then you avoid public blow up like you had with the drones, for example," he said.

Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images