The DEA, or Drug Enforcement Administration, is one of the largest American federal agencies, monitoring drug trafficking on the American continent and arresting drug traffickers. Although the federal agency has modern techniques for the surveillance and arrest of drug traffickers, in an internal document its agents complain due to the fact that I cannot intercept messages sent through iMessage, although they have interception orders issued by judges. The problem lies in the encryption method of the messages sent to Apple's servers, the American agency failing to break the security system thought by Apple.
Encryption used in Apple's iMessage chat service has stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on suspects' conversations, an internal government document reveals. An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, "it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices" even with a court order approved by a federal judge. They discovered that records of text messages already obtained from Verizon Wireless were incomplete because the target of the investigation used iMessage: "It became apparent that not all text messages were being captured."
Practically, this is the first time that the security system of an Apple service is praised in such a way, and everything is all the more important, as it comes from an American federal agency. Of course, the DEA could also ask for Apple's help in intercepting this kind of transmissions, or they could use other interception techniques, but until one more time they are complaining to be most likely helped.
