One issue in Amber Heard’s lawsuit against Johnny Depp is the authenticity of some iMessages. The Daily Mail has a story laying out both sides: “Johnny Depp’s assistant claims his text messages apologizing to Amber Heard for the actor’s actions are FAKE and have been heavily doctored.”
iPhones have all kinds of crypto. Is there a cryptographic hash on a screen shot such that if Amber Heard were to produce the original files we would be able to tell that it was an authentic screen shot from a particular date from either a particular iPhone or at least some iPhone?
What about up in the Apple server farm? iMessages are encrypted but can Apple read them all? Does Apple save them all?
If these (very convenient for a divorce plaintiff) messages are not authentic, how would Amber Heard and her legal team have gone about fabricating the depicted images? Straight up artistic work in Photoshop? Or better to engage in an exchange with a trusted associate and then use Photoshop to cut out and substitute the central portion of the screen?
Update: A friend pointed out that there are multiple web sites, e.g., www.ios7text.com, that will generate screen shots like the ones that Amber Heard may be presenting as evidence. Here’s an example that I created:
In fact, I wonder if this is the service that was used to create the ones offered by Amber Heard and her attorneys. My actual iPhone shows “Details” in the upper right, but ios7text.com defaults to “Contact” in the upper right, as do the screen shots displayed by the Daily Mail. My iPhone shows a microphone icon at bottom right, but ios7text.com and the displayed images show the word “Send” at the bottom right.
Does iMessage show the phone number, or just the recorded name of the sender for a phone number?
If I was sending iMessages back and forth to you, and I put “Richard Feynman” in my contacts name field for your phone number, what would iMessage show? If it shows “Richard Feynman” then anyone could be impersonated via screen shots with only 1 willing accomplice (or even just 2 iPhones in the control of the same person).
I believe the messages are just stored in a sqlite database directly on the phone, so you could modify it at will.
Yes, the Messages app only displays the person’s name. Also, iPhone’s screenshots are just regular PNGs, so having a screenshot doesn’t prove anything.
Apple is able to descrypt the iMessages if they really put their mind onto it (e.g. change the iOS version on the device), although currently they say they engineered the whole system in such a way that they aren’t able to that. (unless messages could be synced as a backup to the Apple’s servers)
There seems to be nothing preventing the court from calling them as an expert – there’s a person who will presumably willingly give up the phone so that Apple can examine it and conclude that messages are not fake. If that’s really possible to establish with any kind of certainty, of course.
Isn’t creating false evidence and trying to use it in a court of law illegal in the US of A? That seems to be a basic fact that might need to be established.
If I start a Message conversation with a person I already had one with, the Message app (on iOS and MacOS devices) fills in the message history. I can scroll back seemingly indefinitely.
So Depp’s lawyers could send Amber a message from his phone on video, then scroll back through them, showing hers are fake. Couldn’t take more than 20min. I assume a good expert witness could turn that into six hours of consultation.
Federico: As noted in a book quoted in http://www.realworlddivorce.com/Mediation in family court “Lying (perjury) is rare acknowledged or punished.” The attorneys whom we interviewed never told us that a perjury conviction was a realistic possibility for a female plaintiff like Amber Heard. Generally false allegations of abuse, child molestation, etc. in U.S. family court fall into the “can’t hurt; might help” category.
Phil, most interesting. Given the ‘who cares about the law’ attitude, when will be able to see a simple duel between parties? That would be faster and far more interesting for the crowds. The duel need not be to the death btw.
A screenshot is by no means proof that a conversation took place in the depicted way, and Apple (trying hard to make iMessage as secure as Signal and Threema) end-to-end encrypts messages. Therefore, the only way to verify the claim is to inspect one of the two involved phones. Of course, the _absence_ of the messages in question doesn’t prove anything because they can be deleted locally.
Modifying a iPhone screenshot is very easy. Time stamps and meta data inside the properties of the files can be doctored. So there is only one way that this can stand at court. Only Apples computer servers can validate the time and date this message was sent.