Kicking off 2020, security and privacy is a hot topic between the latest standoff between Apple and the FBI over the Pensacola incident as well as Apple reportedly abandoning its plan to bring end-to-end encryption to iCloud backups. With an in-depth report on what a robust iPhone cracking operation looks like from the inside, Fast Company shares some fascinating details and photos of NYC’s $10 million cyber lab.

Fast Company calls New York City’s High Technology Analysis Unit lab “ground zero in the encryption battle” between US government and tech companies like Apple. And it goes way beyond some third-party devices made by companies like Cellebrite or Grayshift.

The lab has been built by Manhattan’s cybercrime unit and district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and it includes an RF isolation chamber to give them the best chance of cracking iPhones and iPads before alleged criminals can erase them remotely.

The district attorney of Manhattan, Cyrus Vance Jr., and the city’s cybercrime unit have built this electronic prison for a very specific purpose: to try, using brute force algorithms, to extract the data on the phones before their owners try to wipe the contents remotely.

The report highlights “nearly 3,000 phones” waiting to be cracked at the lab when Fast Company visited. The High Technology Analysis Unit’s director, Steven Moran says they have created a special, custom process with open source software to deal with the amount of devices they get and to know what third-party vendors to work with for cracking iPhones.

After the San Bernardino case, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said they decided to build out the high tech lab.

With that budget, the High Technology Analysis Unit’s director, Steven Moran got some seriously powerful hardware, custom software, and a team of security experts.

The lab’s supercomputer is able to create up to 26 million passcode guesses a second and there’s a “robot that can remove a memory chip without using heat.”

Another interesting statistic, 4 out of 5 smartphones that the DA’s office in Manhattan get are now locked, when five years ago, only 52% were.

The Manhattan DA is also aware that the lab he’s been able to create isn’t a possibility for most cities and highlights his belief that it’s not the answer.

But of course, Apple is likely to change its position or focus on iPhone security and privacy, so the cat and mouse game will continue on.

…

In the end, Vance just wants prosecutors to have all the tools available to do their jobs. “You entrust us with this responsibility to protect the public,” he says. “At the same time, they”—Apple and Google— “have taken away one of our best sources of information. Just because they say so. It’s not that some third party has decided, this is the right thing for Apple and Google to do. They just have done it.”

The full Fast Company piece on Manhattan’s high tech iPhone cracking lab is definitely worth a read.

Images via Fast Company