District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. thinks Apple has an iPhone backdoor because they can send him messages

iPhone passcode (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. is skeptical Apple can't access iPhones.
His reasoning? They can send him messages.
Oh, and update iOS, too.

We told you last week about a new iPhone-cracking lab that had been set up in Manhattan thanks to the work of District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. But everyone missed one wonderful little tidbit from the original Fast Company article. Everyone except Matt Lunkey on Twitter.

See, he spotted a quote that I must confess completely passed me by. And now I can't stop thinking about it. The quote?

Apple argues that it is protecting our privacy by ensuring that no one—not even Apple—can gain access to our most intimate personal data. Vance is skeptical that Apple doesn't have a secret backdoor. "They get into my phone all the time because they upgrade my operating systems and they send me messages," he says.

Go ahead and read that again. I'll wait right here.

So here we are, with one of the key players behind a $10 million cracking setup, apparently of the belief that Apple can get into any iPhone on the planet because it can send messages to it. And update the version of iOS that it's running.

In other news, my postman has the keys to my house. I keep finding letters on the doormat.

Sheesh.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.