FBI Insists Apple Cooperate Despite Resetting iCloud Password on Shooter's iPhone

[MacRumors]

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that it worked with San Bernardino County government officials to reset the iCloud account password on an iPhone belonging to suspected terrorist Syed Farook, according to a press statement obtained by Re/code.

Apple told reporters on Friday that the Apple ID password associated with Farook's iPhone was changed "less than 24 hours" after being in government hands. Had the password not been altered, Apple believes the backup information the government is asking for could have been accessible to Apple engineers.

Nevertheless, the FBI insists that the iCloud password reset does not impact Apple's ability to comply with a court order demanding it create a modified iOS version that allows authorities to unlock the shooter's iPhone 5c by way of a brute-force attack.

The FBI further stated that "direct data extraction from an iOS device often provides more data than an iCloud backup contains," and said investigators may be able to extract more evidence from the shooter's iPhone with Apple's assistance. Tim Cook and company, however, have thus far refused to cooperate.

Even if the password had not been changed and Apple could have turned on the auto-backup and loaded it to the cloud, there might be information on the phone that would not be accessible without Apple's assistance as required by the All Writs Act order, since the iCloud backup does not contain everything on an iPhone. As the government's pleadings state, the government's objective was, and still is, to extract as much evidence as possible from the phone.

Cook shared an open letter on Wednesday stating that while Apple is "shocked and outraged" by the San Bernardino attacks last December, and presumes "the FBI's intentions are good," the company strongly believes that building a "backdoor" for U.S. government officials would be "too dangerous to create."

The White House later denied that the FBI is asking Apple to "create a new backdoor to its products," but rather seeking access to a single iPhone. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice called Apple's opposition a "marketing strategy" in a motion filed to compel Apple to comply with the original court order.

The dispute between Apple and the FBI has ignited a widespread debate over the past six days. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have publicly backed Apple, and some campaigners have rallied to support the company, while U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and some San Bernardino victims have sided with the FBI.

Apple now has until February 26 to file its first legal arguments against the court order.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: FBI Insists Apple Cooperate Despite Resetting iCloud Password on Shooter's iPhone

 

[sputnikv]

You know, one could easily see this as the FBI trying to get into everyone's phones, but it's also making them look really incompetent.

 

[Z400Racer37]

"No, but we really, REALLY want you to compromise the security of all your devices to satisfy this one whim. Just this one timeeee... We promiseee."

In spite of my disagreement with this guy on a lot of issues, Tim has been absolutely heroic in this issue of privacy. Just fantastic.

 

[garirry]

They're getting desperate. Give up, US government. You're not going anywhere now.

 

[mcdj]

So is Apple sitting hard on the key, or is there simply no key? The former would indicate Apple is, as accused, using this as an opportunity to generate warm fuzzies from its customers. The latter would be more palatable, to me anyway.

As a megacorp, I've always found it rather unbelievable that Apple doesn't have the ability to crack it's own keys. But if they won't decrypt this phone because they genuinely can't, wouldn't that be a better argument to the Feds?

 

[Shirasaki]

Providing backdoor to FBI by Apple could cripple the whole iPhone business around the globe, including various European countries and China. There is no need to mention China is always keeping an eye on what Apple is doing.

I also don't agree we need to lose privacy in order to subdue a single killer. There should be workarounds to force shooter leaking passcode, rather than ordering Apple to do so.

 

[ghost187]

If FBI wins, the world will irreversibly lose its privacy.

If Apple wins, we live to fight another day.

Freedom isn't cheap nor easy.

 

[Michael Scrip]

As a megacorp, I've always found it rather unbelievable that Apple doesn't have the ability to crack it's own keys.

Isn't that the whole point?

Otherwise... security that can be broken isn't really secure

 

[Morod]

"Even if the password had not been changed and Apple could have turned on the auto-backup and loaded it to the cloud, there might be information on the phone that would not be accessible without Apple's assistance as required by the All Writs Act order..."
Using weasel words such as "might be" really weakens any government arguments for help from Apple.

 

[dokujaryu]

As a megacorp, I've always found it rather unbelievable that Apple doesn't have the ability to crack it's own keys.

The best kind of security is one you can show every aspect (code, mathematical theory, etc.) to everyone, friends and enemies, and everyone agrees, they can't break it. This is why Open Source is so powerful in the area of security: there is no false sense of security through obscurity.

Apple can't break the encryption because they didn't make the encryption. They specifically picked one they can't break. The FBI knows this. They aren't asking Apple to crack encryption. They are asking for a way to circumvent the secure enclave chip that will wipe the phone after 10 failed attempts at guessing the code. There's only 1 million codes to try, if they could try them one every 2 seconds, worst possible case, they would have the code in 23 days.

 

[DVNIEL]

I'm sure Apple already has a backdoor version of iPhone made... like they did for PowerPC and Intel... "just in case scenario"

 

[paul4339]

I love how the FBI now "has confirmed that it worked with San Bernardino County government officials to reset the iCloud account password" after the County defended itself by tweeting that FBI actually told them to do it.

The FBI made it look like the County were a bunch of buffoons and reset the password.
The County tweeted that the FBI told them to do it.
Now the FBI implies, "ok, it was joint effort"

Just sounds like the FBI is trying to cover up any wrong doing or mistakes by blaming others (throwing anyone under bus even if they try to help)

.

 

[pat500000]

Let's see if we can "investigate" Trump's iphone.

 

[Designer Dale]

"Even if the password had not been changed and Apple could have turned on the auto-backup and loaded it to the cloud, there might be information on the phone that would not be accessible without Apple's assistance as required by the All Writs Act order..."
Using weasel words such as "might be" really weakens any government arguments for help from Apple.

For the FBI, "might be" and "we believe" has come to replace "evidence indicates" and "we have been informed that". They have stopped seeking real facts and just make stuff up. They are smarter than we are, you know...

Dale

 

[Larry-K]

I love how the FBI now "has confirmed that it worked with San Bernardino County government officials to reset the iCloud account password" after the County defended itself by tweeting that FBI actually told them to do it.

The FBI made it look like the County were a bunch of buffoons and reset the password.
The County tweeted that the FBI told them to do it.
Now the FBI implies, "ok, it was joint effort"

Just sounds like the FBI is trying to cover up any wrong doing or mistakes by blaming others (throwing anyone under bus even if they try to help)

That's why they're called "Special" agents.

 

[terraphantm]

So is Apple sitting hard on the key, or is there simply no key? The former would indicate Apple is, as accused, using this as an opportunity to generate warm fuzzies from its customers. The latter would be more palatable, to me anyway.

As a megacorp, I've always found it rather unbelievable that Apple doesn't have the ability to crack it's own keys. But if they won't decrypt this phone because they genuinely can't, wouldn't that be a better argument to the Feds?

They don't have a key. What the FBI wants Apple to do is to write a custom version of iOS that ignores some of the security features and makes a brute force attack feasible.

 

[logicstudiouser]

Go Apple! What the FBI is pushing for is reckless. Don't cave, public opinion is on your side.

 

[GadgetBen]

This is nothing else but a shocking example of brute force, state controlled momentum to establish a precedent of access.

I have never heard of such a mercenary state nation like the U.S (posing to be free and democratic), since the time of the British Empire.

 

[mariusignorello]

What kills me is the fact that if Apple chose to rewrite iOS, this device in question would need to be updated or restored, therefore possibly destroying evidence. After all, they can't back up and restore the device because the password is different now. FBI just might be screwed in this case.

 

[bugout]

They could DFU update to a "newer" version that could disable the passcode security features.

What kills me is the fact that if Apple chose to rewrite iOS, this device in question would need to be updated or restored, therefore possibly destroying evidence. After all, they can't back up and restore the device because the password is different now. FBI just might be screwed in this case.

 

[Jsameds]

With all these mess ups, even the ones who originally stood by the FBI must be having second thoughts by now.

I know I would.

 

[mariusignorello]

They could DFU update to a "newer" version that could disable the passcode security features.

And hope it goes through without issue. Apple is going to have to thoroughly test it or else that data is gone.

 

[\-V-/]

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Isn't that the whole point?

Otherwise... security that can be broken isn't really secure

But they know how the internals work. So they would have the best chance at breaking it.

 

[\-V-/]

But they know how the internals work. So they would have the best chance at breaking it.

That's not how their encryption works. It was intentionally made so they couldn't ...