If you own an iPhone, you should be concerned about GrayKey. That's the name for a new kind of device that's becoming increasingly popular with law enforcement agencies across the U.S., according to recent reports. It's popular because it unlocks iPhones protected with a passcode, even ones running Apple's most recent software, iOS 11. GrayKey is the product of Grayshift, a security company based in Atlanta that was co-founded by an ex-Apple security engineer. The device itself is a nondescript black box with two Lightning cables sticking out. But once you connect a locked iPhone, it can somehow bypass Apple's built-in protections against repeatedly attempting to guess the phone's passcode -- effectively letting users "brute force" the code and get in after a certain amount of tries. A four-digit code becomes practically useless, and a six-digit code might take a few days to crack at the most. Phone-cracking technology has been around since people started keeping sensitive information on phones, but in recent years the security pendulum swung hard in the direction of the user, with improved encryption techniques and widespread adoption of it by Apple, Google, and other big tech companies. As a result, law enforcement decried the emergence of "warrant-proof" devices and complained that important communications were now inaccessible, resulting in intelligence gathering was "going dark." With GrayKey, it definitely looks like the pendulum is swinging the other way. Thanks to the reporting of Motherboard journalist Joseph Cox, we know that local law enforcement across the country are buying the device, which costs as little as $15,000 (plus a subscription to Grayshift's service) -- expensive to the individual, but to a police department, much less than a single squad car. Federal agencies are looking to procure the device, too. Cox joined the MashTalk podcast this week to discuss GrayKey, how it works, and the implications of it in the ongoing tug of war between digital security advocates and law enforcement. Joseph Hall, the chief technologist of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for civil liberties around digital issues, also guests to break down what this could mean for technology policy. One of they first questions we tackle is whether or not GrayKey is actually a good thing? If it's only used when cops have a legitimate warrant to search the contents of an iPhone, doesn't that restore the status quo pre-encryption and ensure they can get the evidence they need to catch criminals? That may be true, but Hall points out that clearly GrayKey takes advantage of some heretofore unknown exploit, which could be leveraged by other parties. And even if others don't discover the flaw, there's not much stopping oppressive regimes, banks, or anyone else with $15,000 to burn from procuring one of these boxes, too. "We have no indication that Grayshift is going to sell these devices only to U.S. law e

Apple vs. the FBI never ended, and the FBI is winning, with guests Joseph Cox and Joe Hall

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