[codev]

Of course there are back doors, like the well known NSAKEY one [1] in Windows. Apple also seem to have backdoors into encryption on both Mac and iOS [2].

If you want your data to be reasonably secure against someone who casually steals it then they're fine but if you want to be secure against government employees, or even well connected corporations, then Apple & Microsoft solutions are not very useful.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY [2] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57583843-38/apple-deluged-...

[Osmium]

Regarding [2], it's not clear yet what Apple does here: it looks like they bruteforce the iPhones when requested by the relevant authorities (possibly using a custom bootrom) and specifically not via a backdoor. If there was a backdoor, presumably Apple wouldn't have a backlog of requests[3]. Though no one really knows, and presumably it's always possible Apple will intentionally compromise their security in future if they get tired of having to bruteforce all these phones.

[3] http://www.informationweek.com/security/encryption/apple-iph...