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That company reportedly charges $15,000. That keeps you reasonably safe. Using a six or eight digit passcode keeps you _very_ safe.
Here's an idea: encrypt the rickroll video with the hardest encryption available, name it something juicy, like "Obama's birth certificate.pdf", or something like that and send it to someone who would be very interested in paying to see it.
 
So let me get this straight: your view and Apple’s view is that, on the one hand, it has no obligation whatsoever to help the FBI break into its phones; that it is outrageous that the FBI might ask a federal court to force it do so; that it has a First Amendment right not to and thus that Congress can’t force it to either; and that the FBI is on its own--even when it has a warrant--free to hack devices but without help from the company, at least to the extent that help requires writing code or offending customers.

But, on the other hand, if the bureau happens to manage to succeed in hacking an iPhone--say, with the help of an Israeli company--then it should inform Apple of the nature of the vulnerability so that the company can better secure its devices from future law enforcement investigations. To put the matter simply, not only does Apple have no obligation to give engineering help to the FBI, the FBI has an obligation to give Apple engineering help so that even the company’s most criminal users can be maximally free from FBI surveillance.

Pardon me, but if I were working at the FBI, this wouldn’t sound like a reasonable position to me. As you would say, It's Asinine!! :p

On the contrary, the FBI should help Apple to make sure that the phones of law-abiding citizens, including army personnel, undercover police agents, the FBI, politicians etc. cannot be hacked.
 
This phone was an iPhone 5c running an A6 processor without a secure enclave. Apple doesn't sell any iOS devices without a secure enclave any more.

The passcode was a 4-digit number.

We know that the DOJ says they can access this iPhone. They can probably access the New York drug case phone, which is even older. Does this mean they can use the same method to access newer iPhones? No. We don't know if they can access newer iPhones. We don't know if they can access iPhones with longer alphanumeric passcodes.

In this case, the DOJ isn't saying how they got in. They don't have to. They can use their new ability to unlock other iPhones that they have in their possession. That's the DOJ's right. It's also their responsibility. If they unlock a bunch of iPhones that have A6 processors and numeric passcodes, but don't unlock newer iPhones or those with strong passcodes, then we'll have a good idea the limits of their current ability. So will Apple. If the DOJ starts unlocking newer iPhones with strong passcodes, then we and Apple have more to worry about.

I think Apple won this round by the measure that is important to me. They weren't forced to hack the security of their own product.

Meanwhile, Apple will continue what they have been doing for the past several years: patching vulnerabilities in iOS at the software and hardware levels (and hopefully not introducing new ones).
 
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Traitorous fascists. I look forward to the coming civil war.

After killing 14 people, any search and seizure seems entirely reasonable to me. In this case, not even a search warrant was needed, because the actual owner of the phone agreed to it. Forcing Apple to weaken the security of all phones was not reasonable, but doing whatever can be done to get into this phone was reasonable.
 
So let me get this straight: your view and Apple’s view is that, on the one hand, it has no obligation whatsoever to help the FBI break into its phones; that it is outrageous that the FBI might ask a federal court to force it do so; that it has a First Amendment right not to and thus that Congress can’t force it to either; and that the FBI is on its own--even when it has a warrant--free to hack devices but without help from the company, at least to the extent that help requires writing code or offending customers.

But, on the other hand, if the bureau happens to manage to succeed in hacking an iPhone--say, with the help of an Israeli company--then it should inform Apple of the nature of the vulnerability so that the company can better secure its devices from future law enforcement investigations. To put the matter simply, not only does Apple have no obligation to give engineering help to the FBI, the FBI has an obligation to give Apple engineering help so that even the company’s most criminal users can be maximally free from FBI surveillance.

Pardon me, but if I were working at the FBI, this wouldn’t sound like a reasonable position to me. As you would say, It's Asinine!! :p

It would, if you understood that the threat to your entire society through hacking is significantly greater a threat than that of terrorism. But I doubt the FBI gives a crap about hacking as a major risk to society, as they are a bunch of morons when it comes to technology. When they can't even prosecute online stalkers who "SWAT" their victims (among other horrible horrible things), I kind of don't consider them to be all that up on this "internet stuff."
 
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In other words, Apple's unlocking of the iPhone on its facilities is sure to be replicated (you know, "slippery slope"), but the Israeli company's access to the iPhone is never to be replicated, as $10,000 is cost prohibitive for hackers. Got it.
The FBI wanted to make Apple reduce the security, so hacking into the phone would have become cheaper. Now hacking it is just as difficult and expensive as it was before.
 
Not sure what you are referring to. The FBI didn't violate the 4th Amendment here. And in fact they have the authorization from the owner themselves to access the phone.

At issue is the fact the FBI tried to forcefully compell Apple to access the case for the FBI.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Traitorous fascists. I look forward to the coming civil war.
 
One of two things happened.

Either the FBI is lying about getting in, because this was never about this phone, it was really about getting a method to get into any phone and it was clear to them that they weren't going to win.

Or,

They broke into it physically using techniques that would require incredibly expensive equipment and render the phone unusable. There is not a flaw in iOS that will allow your phone to be stolen and resold. But, they can get these hundreds of phone opened up now, so no need to pass bad laws.

Was never about the phone. That was a convenient excuse. The FBI wanted to bypass CALEA at minimum and backdoor by conscription at most.
JMHO-YMMV
 
Haven't you all been claiming "slippery slope" since the beginning of this story? No longer?
If you're rocking an iPhone 5c or older iPhone and your passcode is numeric, then the slope is indeed slippery for you.

Apple's newer iPhones are harder to crack already. And they're not stopping their efforts to shore up security even more. The slope we were worried about was the FBI being allowed to compel Apple to weaken their own security. I'm glad the FBI was able to get into this phone, and more glad that they did it without forcing Apple to do it for them.
 
THANK YOU! I didn't know how far I had to read before someone with common sense posted. Saves me the trouble. :)

This phone was an iPhone 5c running an A6 processor without a secure enclave. Apple doesn't sell any iOS devices without a secure enclave any more.

The passcode was a 4-digit number.

We know that the DOJ says they can access this iPhone. They can probably access the New York drug case phone, which is even older. Does this mean they can use the same method to access newer iPhones? No. We don't know if they can access newer iPhones. We don't know if they can access iPhones with longer alphanumeric passcodes.

In this case, the DOJ isn't saying how they got in. They don't have to. They can use their new ability to unlock other iPhones that they have in their possession. That's the DOJ's right. It's also their responsibility. If they unlock a bunch of iPhones that have A6 processors and numeric passcodes, but don't unlock newer iPhones or those with strong passcodes, then we'll have a good idea the limits of their current ability. So will Apple. If the DOJ starts unlocking newer iPhones with strong passcodes, then we and Apple have more to worry about.

I think Apple won this round by the measure that is important to me. They weren't forced to hack the security of their own product.

Meanwhile, Apple will continue what they have been doing for the past several years: patching vulnerabilities in iOS at the software and hardware levels (and hopefully not introducing new ones).
 
Next level: the legislator (blue or red) will make sure an easier way will be enforced ... §§§ finally wins

But thanks :apple: for standing up and keep the position
 
Interesting... I expected this to be dragged out WAY longer!

Although, it'll rear it's head again when apple locks down that security hole (if they can)...

MY QUESTION IS: Did they find anything useful on the iPhone?!?

Gary
Trust me, this is just the beginning.
 
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In other words, they didn't want to risk precedent being set by the case. If the case went against them they'd face an uphill battle to force people and phone makers to unlock their phones.

This was never about accessing the data on the phone, it was about setting a legal precedent that said "you are obligated to backdoor your encryption if the FBI asks" and they realised that Apple wasn't going to take it lying down and thus the legal fight was tougher than they were expecting and they might actually lose.

Edit: typo
In other words, they hacked the phone already.
 

Irrelevant. They could always do this, and always knew about this method. They wanted to chance their arm with a court case though to get some legal precedent.

They always had ways to unlock the phone via other means, but those ways wouldn't end up with US legal precedent that says "If the FBI says jump, you say 'here's your backdoor to our encryption'".
 
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And yet these tools have existed for years. The company that helped the FBI in this case has been doing it for more than 10 years now. People aren't going to suddenly care. Wired did a pissy writeup about how our tool was "shady" because it allowed the government to rip out passwords, browsing history, text messages and more from a suspect computer (keep in mind that they have a judge signed court order to do so legally at the time). They were pissed we wouldn't give them a copy of the software as they aren't our target audience and publicity with some silly publication like Wired does nothing for a company pushing their product to government buyers.

People may be talking about this now but give it a couple weeks and all will be back to normal. The media will focus on the Kardashians again and MacRumors will turn your attention to some other silly topic like how Night Shift may increase sperm count.

Likely. Then again, the NYC DA, LA DA, DOJ, and others will need to be satisfied.
That's the hard thing. The FBI / DOJ lost a lot of trust from all manners of folks and they won't get it back soon.
I would love to hear more detail on the facts. Likely we, except by unintentional info, will likely never hear what really happened.
[doublepost=1459211473][/doublepost]
Correct. And the most likely outcome is that the *second* time this is used (with a living suspect) it will be a part of discovery and the world will know. My money is on replay attack which is already much more difficult in subsequent iPhone models and can be made nearly impossible with some modification to the hardware by Apple.

Unless they go the "stingray route" and drop the indictment(s). That worked for a while. The fall-out sucked for them though.
 
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But this isn't news. We already knew they could access that model since it wasn't a new iPhone. Let's stop the BS please.
 
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Apple's ongoing fight with the U.S. government over an order that would require the company to unlock the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook has come to an end, after the Justice Department today announced plans to drop its case against Apple.

applefbi-800x453.jpg

In a motion asking the court to vacate the original order, prosecutors said the FBI has been able to access the data stored on the iPhone 5c without Apple's help, reports CNBC. From the court filing:Apple was scheduled to square off against the FBI in court on Tuesday, March 22, but just a day ahead of when the court date was set to take place, the FBI asked for a temporary postponement as it had discovered a way to access the iPhone that would not require Apple's participation.

It later came out that the FBI had enlisted the help of Israeli mobile software developer Cellebrite, a company that offers "mobile forensic solutions" to help law enforcement agencies crack the encryption on smartphones to access data. The government has not disclosed the method used to obtain the information on the iPhone, stating only that it has been retrieved.

The withdrawal of the case brings the heated battle between Apple and the U.S. government to a close. The two have been fighting a very public debate over encryption and personal privacy, which kicked off when a court ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c in question.

Unlocking the iPhone would have required Apple to build a new version of iOS that bypassed iPhone passcode restrictions and provided the FBI with a way to enter passcodes electronically, something Apple staunchly refused to do as it would set a dangerous precedent for the future of device encryption.

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: Justice Department Officially Drops Lawsuit Against Apple in Ongoing iPhone Unlocking Dispute


All planned. WHO told them that the company in Israel "may" be able to unlock it...? Didn't Apple buy some tech companies in Israel last year...(read it here on this site)? Quick settlement...each party got what they wanted. Apple looks good and actually will increase trust and sales, Gov. got what they wanted. Win Win on everyone's court. Very smart...
 
Irrelevant. They could always do this, and always knew about this method. They wanted to chance their arm with a court case though to get some legal precedent.

They always had ways to unlock the phone via other means, but those ways wouldn't end up with US legal precedent that says "If the FBI says jump, you say 'here's your backdoor to our encryption'".
Relevant.

Unless you're saying this is the Feds master plan:
- Ignore known iPhone hack and delay access to perpetrator's iPhone
- Sue Apple
- Escalate rhetoric and galvanize Silicon Valley against us
- Hack iPhone and drop lawsuit
- Fail to get Apple to "jump"

That argument makes no sense to me.
 
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