iCloud, which is literally what I just said. Anything stored in the cloud is free reign. If the authorities have a warrant, Apple will cooperate. This has nothing to do with unlocking the phone. 😐
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Donald Trump Calls on Apple to 'Step Up to the Plate' and Unlock iPhones Used by Florida Mass Shooter
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I like Apple's stance on the issue because user privacy is a must nowadays.
Very stable genius with a large A-BRAIN!
I am a YUGE Trump supporter and a huge supporter of law enforcement...but no, I do NOT want them to be able to or to help unlock this phone.
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Are you implying iCloud has a bit-for-bit copy of what's on your phone? Or do you just not know what you're talking about?
Google has probably sold/harvested all the important info on your phone anyway. So of course they would do it in a heartbeat
I’m wondering if/when Apple will simply state that they can’t unlock iPhones. Everyone is talking about this like it’s something Apple could do if they wanted to, but Apple has designed the security to be impossible to get around. Not even Apple is supposed to be able to unlock encrypted secured iPhones. They can provide iCloud data, but they’ve already done that.
Now Trump is framing this like a quid pro quo: he gave them tariff exclusions, so they should magically unlock these iPhones. 🍿
Now Trump is framing this like a quid pro quo: he gave them tariff exclusions, so they should magically unlock these iPhones. 🍿
Nope Nope and more NOPE! I agree it sucks as there could be evidence on the phone or plans for more mass shootings but if apple unlocks the phone one time the FBI or government will keep wanting more and more and pretty soon it will be an endless cycle of unlock requests.
Nope, two separate things - the bit you quote is talking about looking at data incoming to iCloud (likely looking at message digests of files and matching against a database of known bad ones, though it's possible they've got some machine learning code looking at the pics). Unlocking a phone is an entirely different matter - Apple has engineered iOS and the phone hardware so they can't unlock it. If they made a phone that (theoretically) nobody else could get into but they still had a way in, then they'd have countries lining up at their door demanding access (country A for terrorism, country B for thinking bad thoughts about the glorious leader, etc.). So, they've been working for the past half decade or so to take themselves out of the picture, by making systems even they can't get into.
Most hackers seem to be more creative than Apple (i.e. jailbreaks).
If Apple puts in a back door, everyone will have it.
It's pretty much an all or nothing.
Please explain what’s hilarious.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
I'm implying that the phone itself may not need to be unlocked. If you can verify the backup is of a particular iPhone you can use that backup to restore to another iPhone at which point you have a copy of the original phone.
An iCloud backup, unless exemptions were set, is a full representation of an iPhone at a particular point in time. You can do a backup yourself, destroy the original iPhone and then restore it to another iPhone yourself can you not?
One one can do with that and whether it would be legally usable is another matter.
give us a backdoor to change the nuclear launch codes. you know, incase you fire it because you're angry about hillary clinton or something
Most back up to iCloud, is that the answer you were looking for? Oh, those backups are encrypted before they leave your phone (when it wants your password before restoring it isn't just for "permission", it's for decrypting the backup). If the FBI could easily break the AES128 encryption on the iCloud backups, they wouldn't be asking for Apple's help.
More info here: iCloud security overview - Apple Support
Can we just leave Apple out of this? The one person who can unlock the iPhone was killed by the Sheriff's department, and his password died with him. That sucks, but that's the way it goes. We can't, as a society, compromise the privacy of over 7B people just because we want a look at a murderer's iPhone.
These government officials are simply going after Apple as the path of least resistance. They can't go after the owners of iPhones, and they know it, because it's likely the Supreme Court will ultimately rule that such a disclosure violates the Fifth Amendment, and they don't want to risk that (although they probably should, because there is no greater friend of the Establishment than Chief Justice Roberts).
Look, we all know President Trump does not understand how encryption works. There is nothing to unlock without the password, and I think it's terrific that Apple has designed such a secure system.
Should we outlaw all guns because they can be used illegally? How about all knives? Or all cars? Encryption is just a tool, but it's a necessary tool for secure communications. What happens when the United States government demands all encrypted data also be encrypted with the government's master key? How long until every other government on Earth demands the same thing? And it just takes ONE, only ONE, of those master keys to be compromised, and now all communications are compromised. Are the citizens of the United States really supposed to entrust their privacy and security to the government of Estonia? Or Lichtenstein? Where does it end? What happens when our enemies like China or Russia insist that all encrypted data be decrypted with their master keys as well?
And what of the master keys themselves? We're talking about a password which could unlock all communications, everywhere. What would governments do to obtain such a key? Would they bribe, blackmail, extort, or kill whichever government employee(s) hold the master keys?
OK, so maybe we just have Apple, Google, Facebook et al encrypt all data with the owner's key and also a corporate master key, and then the government can just present a warrant and get the data they desire. That could work...except now every intelligence agency, hacker, and criminal on Earth will target those tech companies so they can sell that master key to the highest bidder. Or worse.
The truly terrifying event is the Senate's hearing on encryption last month, where they roasted the Apple employee while every other witness claimed that there was a way to solve this problem. And let's not forget that both Republicans and Democrats on the committee, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Graham and Ranking Member Feinstein both demanded that Silicon Valley "solve this problem" or they would "make them." It's astonishing that Chairman Graham thinks he has the power or innate intelligence to order Apple to get him a cup of coffee, let alone rearchitect their operating systems' security to introduce the largest vulnerability ever devised.
Doesn't Apple get a say in how this will negatively affect its business? I think it's time for Apple to start a SuperPAC for each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with an initial sum of $50M for each member. That ought to get them off Apple's back for awhile. Maybe then they'll stop opining about what completely fail to understand.
These government officials are simply going after Apple as the path of least resistance. They can't go after the owners of iPhones, and they know it, because it's likely the Supreme Court will ultimately rule that such a disclosure violates the Fifth Amendment, and they don't want to risk that (although they probably should, because there is no greater friend of the Establishment than Chief Justice Roberts).
Look, we all know President Trump does not understand how encryption works. There is nothing to unlock without the password, and I think it's terrific that Apple has designed such a secure system.
Should we outlaw all guns because they can be used illegally? How about all knives? Or all cars? Encryption is just a tool, but it's a necessary tool for secure communications. What happens when the United States government demands all encrypted data also be encrypted with the government's master key? How long until every other government on Earth demands the same thing? And it just takes ONE, only ONE, of those master keys to be compromised, and now all communications are compromised. Are the citizens of the United States really supposed to entrust their privacy and security to the government of Estonia? Or Lichtenstein? Where does it end? What happens when our enemies like China or Russia insist that all encrypted data be decrypted with their master keys as well?
And what of the master keys themselves? We're talking about a password which could unlock all communications, everywhere. What would governments do to obtain such a key? Would they bribe, blackmail, extort, or kill whichever government employee(s) hold the master keys?
OK, so maybe we just have Apple, Google, Facebook et al encrypt all data with the owner's key and also a corporate master key, and then the government can just present a warrant and get the data they desire. That could work...except now every intelligence agency, hacker, and criminal on Earth will target those tech companies so they can sell that master key to the highest bidder. Or worse.
The truly terrifying event is the Senate's hearing on encryption last month, where they roasted the Apple employee while every other witness claimed that there was a way to solve this problem. And let's not forget that both Republicans and Democrats on the committee, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Graham and Ranking Member Feinstein both demanded that Silicon Valley "solve this problem" or they would "make them." It's astonishing that Chairman Graham thinks he has the power or innate intelligence to order Apple to get him a cup of coffee, let alone rearchitect their operating systems' security to introduce the largest vulnerability ever devised.
Doesn't Apple get a say in how this will negatively affect its business? I think it's time for Apple to start a SuperPAC for each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with an initial sum of $50M for each member. That ought to get them off Apple's back for awhile. Maybe then they'll stop opining about what completely fail to understand.
Seriously this is a good point. Trump has actively obstructed justice many times since taking office. He was literally just impeached for obstructing congress. It’s pretty rich for him to tell anyone to aid federal investigators - even if it were a request that was possible for Apple to follow, which it isn’t.
Perhaps the biggest problem this world faces, is letting people make decisions about things they know nothing about.
Right. There are no back doors.
Do you really believe that Apple would swear, under oath, that there are no back doors when there actually are? They're going to have their employees lie to Congress, to the courts? And what do the employees get, other than a jail sentence if they're discovered?
If there IS a back door, how could the employees who know about it possibly keep it a secret? Nobody gets to look at the source but the few people who work on it, and they're sworn to secrecy? That seems pretty unlikely.
And WHY would you engineer a back door when your reputation depends on security? What happens to your business when a hacker discovers the back door?
Look what being Trump's ally and good buddy to date has gotten you, Tim. That whole PR video of Trump "opening a new Apple factory in Texas" (a complete and total lie, like most everything else Trump says). He's still willing to throw you under the bus. And you'll probably just roll over again. For shame. Show some backbone.
I'm sorry but potentially compromising all iPhones is an unacceptable trade-off. The government needs to find another way.
Actually, Google won't either, because just like Apple, they can't do it. Like Apple, they can provide any data in the cloud, but not actually unlock the phone.
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Here is the other issue with this, even if they find another way to access the phone(s), it compromises all phones because it shows it can be done. Apple really needs to step up and make the phones automatically do a secure erase if someone attempts to hack the phone to unlock it like this and to automatically do a secure erase after a certain number of bad attempts at entering the passcode.
So there's a thing called math, and another thing called physics, and another thing called encryption. If you look into these things, you may come to understand why Apple is unable to do this.