Tim Cook: Apple Won't Create 'Backdoor' to Help FBI Access San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone
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That's exactly it. If the US government forces Apple to weaken the security of their devices, the bad guys will just use non-Apple encryption software or switch to a non-US phone manufacturer that cannot be coerced by the US government. As Phil Zimmermann said, if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.
This whole thing is just a transparent attempt by the snoops to exploit the tragic events in San Bernadino to achieve what they cannot get through the proper legislative process. We already knew that they were just waiting for an opportunity like this. From an article in the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ca5f72-5adf-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html
"Privately, law enforcement officials have acknowledged that prospects for congressional action this year are remote. Although “the legislative environment is very hostile today,” the intelligence community’s top lawyer, Robert S. Litt, said to colleagues in an August e-mail, which was obtained by The Post, “it could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement.”
There is value, he said, in “keeping our options open for such a situation.”
0007776
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Assuming the government is able to force them to do this, could Apple program future phones to automatically wipe if someone tries to update the iOS version without entering in the passcode? They would need something like that to allow me to trust their security enough to use services like Apple Pay after they are forced to create this.
Nice red herring! See....you believe not letting the government have a skeleton key to peek into any iPhone they want is a weakness in the system. Most rational, intelligent, people see it as a strength. You want them to be able to look into your phone by all means let them in...... I'm not naive enough to believe the government won't abuse such a tool and I also respect my privacy.
MrAverigeUser
macrumors 6502a
I think you are wrong:
wikipedia:
- Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitious care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart… To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty… and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted.
- For the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (1789). As quoted in Writings (1987), p. 1154-1155
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Mums
Suspended
The UN and the people behind it probably wrote the order! Also I hope this is real, because it could just be a show to make people think Apple is fighting the "government". Although it was a much less important issue, the whole Taylor Swift thing seemed like it could have been staged, and if it was then Apple was complicit.
You're astounded that someone believes that the government shouldn't be able to force a company to give them a skeleton key to look into any iPhone hey want in the world? Could you please do a little research on the Constitution and what it took to obtain and keep it.
Ghost31
macrumors 68040
I'll need to put on my tinfoil hat for this
Because they need to give a public show that Apple faught hard on this issue and lost and THATS why the government has access to our iCloud. When really behind closed doors they were on the same page all along. Or maybe they want terrorist's to flock to iPhones when and be lulled into a false sense of security because they know they have the keys to open them. Better than then terrorists actually going the extra step and encrypting stuff on their own
I just watched X files. Is it obvious? They need to come back for an 11th season and talk Apple conspiracies
kd5jos
macrumors 6502
What you just asked for isn't possible. Either Apple secures the system like they have, or there has to be a back door weakness in every phone created meaning that there is a generic back door key. If they tried to make a key specific to each phone, that could still be exploited. Technology isn't magic.
digitalcuriosity
macrumors 6502a
STAND FIRM APPLE and TIM COOK. Keeping prying EYEs out our iPhones&iPads is the RIGHT THING TO DO.
Are you serious right now? You realize there is no way for Apple to create just a single back door for this one particular case, right? They have to create a back door that could then be used on any device, and once it's created it's going to be exploited by hackers for malicious reasons. Security isn't security if you purposely build back doors into them.
If Apple is forced to create a back door, terrorists are just going to use other encryption software. The only people this hurts are you and me.
Apple does support the authorities, they said themselves they hand over any data possible when requested with a subpoena. You are missing the entire point of encryption here, there is no way presently for Apple to gain access to data on your phone. They'd have to create a back door in their encryption in order to do this, and in doing so it opens the doors for the government and hackers.
You're missing the point. If there is a way, any way at all, to bypass the encryption on the phone to pull data, even if it's an Apple engineer, it means that hackers will find that exploit and take full advantage of it.
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kd5jos
macrumors 6502
So the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many?
0007776
Suspended
You're right, bad people do take advantage of weaknesses in the system which is precisely why building security weaknesses into iPhones is a bad idea. If there is a backdoor, even if it is through installing a custom version of iOS onto a phone then criminals will take advantage of it. Hacking in and getting credit card details from apple pay, or getting information from banking apps are just a couple of the things that criminals would love to be able to do, and apple complying with this order would allow to happen.
DJ Dilbert
macrumors regular
What's really messed up is that not only would this allow for spying on our own citizens, but this would allow our government to spy on foreign leaders (allies as well as enemies) that are within our borders and potentially anywhere outside the US as well if that "update" were to be released.
This is truly frightening how much power our government wants. This is not what this country should be standing for. The real reason behind this is to have unlimited access to anyone's personal data. Not the terrorists, not the random gunman and not the hackers. The people that are really doing actual damage have the resources to evade this. What this really means is that one more right is being taken away from you. Just as they are doing to a company trying to sell a product. They are trying to eliminate their rights to make a product. But the government wants to approve the design to fit their wishes. Doesn't sound very free to me.
This is truly frightening how much power our government wants. This is not what this country should be standing for. The real reason behind this is to have unlimited access to anyone's personal data. Not the terrorists, not the random gunman and not the hackers. The people that are really doing actual damage have the resources to evade this. What this really means is that one more right is being taken away from you. Just as they are doing to a company trying to sell a product. They are trying to eliminate their rights to make a product. But the government wants to approve the design to fit their wishes. Doesn't sound very free to me.
Give up your freedom.... I enjoy mine.... Too many people died ensuring it for me.... I'd rather not take a dump on their grave because you can't respect their sacrifice.
GFLPraxis
macrumors 604
No matter your opinion on Scalia, this is actually a bad time to not have him in the Supreme Court. He swung two votes 5-4 for privacy over law enforcement, including making GPS Tracking and infrared imaging of a private home illegal without a warrant.
He may have been regarded as partisan by many, but he always voted pro privacy. Sadly, being anti-privacy tends to be bipartisan these days, as both the Bush and Obama administrations picked away at it.
ericg301
macrumors 68020
bigger issue - news sites using old iPhone stock photos (pre-ioS 7 GUI). not only does that make these sources lool terribly out of date just from a visual perspective, but encryption didn't exist pre ios 8, right?
so basically we're reading stories about encryption while viewing photos of phones without it.
so basically we're reading stories about encryption while viewing photos of phones without it.
DJ Dilbert
macrumors regular
You sir are an idiot if you really believe that.
Exactly. They were itching for just this type of opportunity to take Apple to task on this issue. They're smart, they know from history that many Americans are stupid enough to trade their freedoms for perceived security immediately following a tragic event.
inhalexhale1
macrumors 65816
Cook, like the rest of the politicians, is just pandering to popular opinion. This guy is a murderer and doesn't deserve privacy. I think if someone is proven to be a murderer, with ties to organizations that may commit further murder, his privacy is a non issue. Amazing how Tim refers to this waste of life as "one of our customers".
To anyone championing cook, what if through this or other investigations like it, they could stop an attack in your city? Maybe on your family. This privacy issue isn't black and white. The government should have not have open access unless it's proven to be necessary, like this. Then, it shouldn't even be a discussion.
To anyone championing cook, what if through this or other investigations like it, they could stop an attack in your city? Maybe on your family. This privacy issue isn't black and white. The government should have not have open access unless it's proven to be necessary, like this. Then, it shouldn't even be a discussion.
NT1440
macrumors P6
In response to a clearly absurd dumbing down of the issue at hand, yes.
No, it sure isn't. But, I love how Apple is challenging this gray area of the law. There's a definite slippery slope here and it's great that a company of Apple's stature is standing up to the government (or perhaps only a company of Apple's stature could).
AppleScruff1
macrumors G4
Why? Wouldn't a criminal want to cover their tracks as best as they possibly could?