Gov’t officials & security experts attempt to crack Apple’s new iOS 7 ‘Activation Lock’ feature

Three days before Apple and other technology companies were scheduled to meet government officials for a summit on increasing smartphone crime last month, Apple announced at its developer conference that iOS 7 would include a brand new theft deterrent feature. At the meeting in June, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon announced the program “Our Smartphones Initiative” to bring together police and other government agencies to help tackle the problem. Now, Gascón and New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman are hosting the first meeting of the group and attempting to crack Apple’s new “Activation Lock” theft deterrent feature with a team of experts (via Cnet). Security experts at the meeting will also attempt to bypass Samsung’s LoJack security app solution available on its Galaxy S4:

During a meeting today in San Francisco, technical experts – including representatives from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC) – will be given an Apple iPhone 5 with a new anti-theft security feature known as “Activation Lock” enabled and a Samsung Galaxy s4 with a new anti-theft security feature known as “Lojack for Android” enabled.  The smartphones will be treated as if they were stolen by thieves, and attempts will be made to circumvent the anti-theft features.

At WWDC, Apple introduced the ‘Activation Lock’ feature that will require an Apple ID and password to reactivate a stolen phone after being remotely erased/wiped by the owner through the Apple Find my iPhone feature. The login information will also now be required to turn off Find My iPhone. If a user’s device is stolen, wiping the device clean will essentially leave the thief with a device that is inoperable without the user’s Apple ID and password.

The results of the attempt to crack the Apple and Samsung secuirty features should be published later today. We’ll update here when they are available.