(T) At the same time that the RSA Security Conference is happening this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, everyone is talking and writing about the battle between Apple and the FBI. Previously to iOS 8, if law enforcement came to Apple with a seized device and a valid warrant, it was able to access a substantial portion of the data already on an iPad or iPhone. But with the launch of iOS 8 and now iOS 9, that is now impossible as all the user’s photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders are encrypted on the user’s phone.To learn more about iOS security and encryption, Apple has a great white paper on its Web site: iOS Security.

Emily Chang from Bloomberg West had many great interviews on her show this week, in particular:

• An interview with Apple Attorney Ted Olson

• An interview with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch

And as it was already the case during last year RSA Conference, government proposals to have a “front door” access (as opposed to a “backdoor” which bypasses security defenses) and to use key escrow encryption (where the encryption keys are held in “escrow”, a location accessible only to governments) were widely discussed, and in particular in The Cryptographers’ Panel:

Bruce Schneier has also written many essays on his blog about government requests to weaken encryption.

Note: The picture above is from the RSA Security Conference Exhibits.

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