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Remember it was the Russians that warned the FBI, that one of the brothers who carried out the Boston marathon bomb attack was on their list as could be terrorist watch list. And what did our FBI do? Answer NOTHING let them carrier out their attack.
I also remember this man at a flying school here in the USA,he contacted the FBI told them a non American guy with cash, he wanted to learn just how to fly large aircraft, no taking off no landing just flying it.
Guy at the flying school thought it needed some looking into by the FBI.
What did the FBI do....they did NOTHING don't need to tell anyone what he did... do i?
If the FBI would really do their job, and not nit pick on Apple about hacking into a useless iPhone, just maybe we would be somewhat protected.
 
I think this is becoming an embarrassment for the FBI. All the talk about "our experts can recover anything" is just not true. And Apple has made that clear with this case.
 
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Here's Apple's attorney that will be filing the response for the company: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...s-apple-fight-against-fbi-20160218-story.html

Heard Woz on CNBC today. He pointed out that you don't know who could get their hands on this if Apple is forced to create it and things change so you can't guarantee who in the future. Mentioned people in the government, etc. including even people in charge of Apple down the road or an employee with a flash drive for example should the code reside at Apple. We saw the damage Edward Snowden did to the NSA so insiders are not out of the realm of possibilities.

I was not part of the McCarthy era or really J Edgar Hoover's FBI, but those certainly can be used as examples from our own time, own country of the abuse of power. If this really was about one phone of a terrorist this might have been settled, since Apple has turned over all other info they could to investigators, but it's really a much more complicated issue and one with ramifications going forward.
[doublepost=1455830059][/doublepost]Kind of an interesting comment a reporter in China made today on TV, she said that the Chinese people are also talking about this case and what they seem to express more than the security issue is the fact that Companies here can take a stand against a government body. Something to think about.
 
What a dilemma; the irony of this is there's no such thing as a "secret lab" , once the backdoor code is known to one person every hacker on the face of the earth gets wind of it. What ensues will be devastating; a data breach armageddon. Apple may never recover from violating our privacy rights
 
Maybe it is the natural cycle of news and news articles (plus blogs and forums) but it it starting to appear as if the FBI and "associates" have bitten off a bit more than they envisioned. Tiger (a damn big global one) by the tail. :eek:
 
They are only worried about accessing this one phone.... Again, they can't see the big picture.

What do we think about what Google has done..... meet it half way on iOS instead..

No hardware encryption, just software encryption in the phone, and user selects if they want it on or not. ?

(Oh wait,,, software can be by-passed can't it... Gosh darn it. Guess that won't do then)
 
Some say how he's fighting the good fight and having ethics. That's good. But the company will doubtlessly continue to lobby government for special corporate treatment, offshore jobs to places where child labor and suicide factories with forced morale parades are used, etc... (yes, other companies use the same factories. Apple could set a human rights precedent instead of token platitudes every other month or so... it's hardly a destitute company and could even become hardware vendor of the world if it wanted.)

Still, hindering a federal case like this isn't surely a nice thing to do?
 
I think this is becoming an embarrassment for the FBI. All the talk about "our experts can recover anything" is just not true. And Apple has made that clear with this case.


Not just the FBI. its showing the lack on communication between government entities that exists and causes issues. They could ring up the NSA, maybe CIA and say we know you have some peeps who could maybe do this....how about a helping hand. IIRC all these offices are off of I-95 or in the "beltway" area.

Either the FBI is too proud to do this.
Or the NSA/CIA is has been approached and unwilling to do this.

Or some intraorganizational redtape BS is killing this.

This is what kills investigations more than locked down phones. Several entities with resources put to potentially the same persons of interest, and they don't or can't talk to each other. FBI has some pieces to the puzzle, some other entity has some others....If they don't mix the pieces that puzzle will never get done.

Or its the NSA avoiding tipping their hat and saying yes we can do this (or can't maybe). Secrecy or pride...again killing this.

Rest of this is slippery slope territory. Would this be a legit case to break this privacy. Yes can be argued maybe. Problem is it becomes precedence. That will lead to over use if not flat out abuse.

this the way of many law enforcement concessions in the past. things that got LE powers curtailed in time. "Good cops" use it is not the issue. Its when its the "bad" ones run a train on it we get issues.

The bring in for questioning a person meeting a description power. Good cops use this to find good strong possibilities for a suspect. I have seen bad cops use this for less noble reasons. Knew a guy I worked with brought in for questioning because "he met the description".

Description: 6'5" 250 lb black male.


Guy I knew: 5'6" (in work boots, thicker soles), 120 lbs (if soaking wet and just had a massive meal) and Puerto Rican (very light skin and definitely not the very dark skin tone variety). He met the male part....got 1 out of 3 right I suppose.
 
As a european I find it scary that if this were to happen. This would affect the security of iPhone owners not just in the US, which is where FBI has jurisdiction. But in the entire world.

This would give the FBI the tools to break into the personal data of people from all over the world. In other words if the american government can direct Apple to do anything, it will have global ramifications. And it almost feel like the rest of us, outside the US, don´t have a say in the matter at all.

I dont think the UN would be approving of such an order.
I wouldn't be so sure about that last statement. When it comes to power and controlling the population, all governments (as well as governing bodies such as the UN) are the same. Power is addictive after all.

Tim is 100% correct in saying this needs public discussion, however I agree with you that such discussion should be worldwide as the ramifications of any resolutions or decisions re backdoors to our most private data will not only affect us here, but it will involve people all over the world.
 
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So, assuming this is the case (I am no encryption expert, just a commentator), I see two solutions: 1. Change the way the encryption/decryption process works - think of a better way that does permit access securely. 2. Perhaps relatedly, make it so that the decrpyion key/process requires actual physical hardware, not just a number, and thus cannot be held copied or shared by anyone without building a perfect duplicate of the hardware decryptor - something that might in fact be impossible if it used physical attributes of the hardware.

My point is: there is a blanket statement made here that having a means to enable access implicitly means there is then a simple easy access backdoor to every device - potentially opening them up for exploit. I simply don't think it needs to be the case. Apple/tech industry need to get creative if they wish to maintain the apparent need for security and at the same time maintain their social responsibility.

Look at it this way: if everyone were able to commit a crime and not get caught (due to lack of access to incriminating evidence), do you think crime rates would be unaffected, go down, or increase?

I read today that one DA in New York City has 175 locked iPhones in his departments evidence room. The FBI probably has them by the semi truck load. If Apple complies with the current court order they will never see the end of it.

If Apple sells a version of the iPhone that has no form of encryption or password by default, third party software people will fill that hole. Then we will have a communications version of the gun confiscation/control argument: When good guys don't have guns (security) only bad guys will have guns (security).

Dale
 
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Paul Revere Syndrome (aka Israel Bissel or others).
"The terrorists are coming and we don't have all the data!"
Except Paul has been replaced by an FBI agent and a member of the AG's office.
[doublepost=1455812614][/doublepost]

It's not about National Security. It's all about expansion of powers of a 200+ year old writ. This is the Government's latest "game".
[doublepost=1455812826][/doublepost]


This should help and is a great read.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...fight-the-doj-in-iphone-backdoor-crypto-case/

"Trump" up everything against Apple because to them Apple is the New Big Brother.. only, this big brother does not want to snoop and does not want others to snoop without being allowed to, and hence is facing music from the government.

Wonder what is Google's stand on this... :D
 
How about this: Apple agrees to take physical possession of the iPhone with the supervision of the FBI. Apple could create the special firmware that is being asked for, extract the information from the phone, give only that information to the FBI, and then destroy the phone and the firmware. That way the FBI gets the information but not the "backdoor" or whatever we call it. I think most would agree that we'd trust Apple with this over the FBI.
 
How about this: Apple agrees to take physical possession of the iPhone with the supervision of the FBI. Apple could create the special firmware that is being asked for, extract the information from the phone, give only that information to the FBI, and then destroy the phone and the firmware. That way the FBI gets the information but not the "backdoor" or whatever we call it. I think most would agree that we'd trust Apple with this over the FBI.

Then why did Apple not make that suggestion and provide the solution to the FBI without raising a fit? I would have preferred this solution as the most obvious way to go without compromising the iOS platform.
 
Then why did Apple not make that suggestion and provide the solution to the FBI without raising a fit? I would have preferred this solution as the most obvious way to go without compromising the iOS platform.

I'm not sure. Maybe they will when they respond. It seems like a win-win but I might be oversimplifying.
 
I'm not sure. Maybe they will when they respond. It seems like a win-win but I might be oversimplifying.

Right.

But if they do make that suggestion, then the government will call Tim out for making such claims of the company having no " back door " to iOS.

And I think Tim knows it. He made the right stance in defending the right to privacy but it put him and Apple in a very tight situation between a rock and a hard place. It just may bite him in the ass eventually.
 
How about this: Apple agrees to take physical possession of the iPhone with the supervision of the FBI. Apple could create the special firmware that is being asked for, extract the information from the phone, give only that information to the FBI, and then destroy the phone and the firmware. That way the FBI gets the information but not the "backdoor" or whatever we call it. I think most would agree that we'd trust Apple with this over the FBI.
I would agree with this 100% if there wasn't the issue of dealing with other governments. If apple does this for the FBI, what is stoping, for example, the Chineese government from asking apple to do a similar thing to one of their seized phones? Once Apple caves to the US, other governments will want the same thing for themselves. It's kind of like as a child, "Its not fair that Johnny gets it and I don't!"
 
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What i am reading in the paper is not only does the FBI, want to get into Syed Farook's employer provided iPhone, they want also might want to share this software tool with other foreign allies.
Oh yeah we know our trusted allies would never misuse this sweet break in master key..<grinning>
What were looking at is a master key that can unlock, everything that is used to keep peoples data private.
The judge in this case the said the software should include a unique identifier, so that can't be used to unlock other iPhones. Sure judge you can trust us nice honest FBI, we won't use it on any other device....ha..ha...
In the past Apple has been helpful with many items to assist the FBI,but now what the FBI is wanting is for Apple build them a tool that would allow them to break into anyones device if they wished, this would be the end to everyones private data.
 
Right.

But if they do make that suggestion, then the government will call Tim out for making such claims of the company having no " back door " to iOS.

And I think Tim knows it. He made the right stance in defending the right to privacy but it put him and Apple in a very tight situation between a rock and a hard place. It just may bite him in the ass eventually.
I don't think he lied in saying there is no back door. They would have to create one.
 
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