DEA Has Trouble Intercepting iMessage Communications

Check out this excerpt from a “DEA Intelligence Note”:

On February 21, 2013, the DEA San Jose Resident Office (SJRO) learned that text messages sent via iMessages® [sic] between Apple products (iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch® [sic], and iMac®^[1]) are not captured by pen register, trap and trace devices, or Title III interceptions. iMessages between two Apple devices are considered encrypted communication and cannot be intercepted, regardless of the cell phone service provider.

One’s imagination instantly leaps to images of thousands of petty criminals and drug dealers tossing their “burners” in the trash, and then queuing up at the Apple store for an iPod Touch. And then texting C|NET to thank them for the tip.

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1. Note the humorously clueless conflation of the entire Mac product line into simply “iMac.”  ↩