couldnt read the whole article, but I would say, this is an “oh, fuck.” moment for a lot of people
The FBI tries and cannot unlock a recent phone. they allegedly turn to a private company for emergency access and they are in within hours(?)
I think many people should reevaluate their threat model and mitigations after this. perhaps this changes nothing for you. perhaps it changes everything for you.
We don’t have any evidence for this statement, and we can never prove the negative (that a device is absolutely secure).
does anyone have info on crooks’s phone make/model (and an OS version guess)? I have not seen this anywhere and, if it is not already in the public domain, why?
FBI says they got the phone contents in the clear. that gives some boundsfor both known (easy) potential compromises and “oh, fuck.”
edit: typo
edit 2: still no detail but I found this…
The phone was a relatively new model, which can be harder for law enforcement to access than old phones because of newer software, according to technology experts. In many federal investigations, it can take hours, weeks or months to open a suspect’s phone.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/16/thomas-crooks-phone-motive-parents-trump-shooting/
unless this information is now a state secret, we may learn more.
I know this may be pedantic, but
it’s just that the newer phones are secure… For now.
that statement suggests that other recovery techniques (e.g. hardware decaping, state zero-days, etc), dont already make absolutely current devices insecure.
it would not surprise me that a TLA with physical access could not recover enclave information and completely expose naked storage in 2 days or less - its just a matter of how urgent is. a former president nearly loosing their head might count as pretty damn urgent. meddle with the us power structure and it will protect itself - if not the particular individuals.
if you noticed any power dips in your area right after the attempt on trump, that was probably the local NSA cluster firing up.
there was a mental word search, glitch in the matrix moment right at that point - read into that what you will, cuz these days all options are valid.
“insinuate” is absolutely the very best word, but publicly one has to walk the fine line between complicity and hair-on-fire alarm, and so “initiate” came out of her mouth.
for the record, I think we are past the face-melting stage.
a trap at every turn.