U.S. Attorney General Asks Apple to Unlock iPhones Used by Florida Mass Shooter [Updated]

[MacRumors]

United States Attorney General William Barr today asked Apple to unlock the iPhones used in mass shooting last month at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, reports The New York Times.

The request comes as the shooting has been declared an act of terrorism, and it follows a report last week that the FBI sent a letter to Apple asking for help accessing two iPhones used by shooter Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.

"This situation perfectly illustrates why it is critical that the public be able to get access to digital evidence," Mr. Barr said, calling on Apple and other technology companies to find a solution and complaining that Apple has provided no "substantive assistance."

Apple has already provided law enforcement officials with information from Alshamrani's iCloud account, but the two iPhones are passcode protected (one is also damaged from gunfire) and Apple has in he past taken a strong position against providing access to locked iPhones.

Apple last week said that it had already provided all of the information in its possession to the FBI.

We have the greatest respect for law enforcement and have always worked cooperatively to help in their investigations. When the FBI requested information from us relating to this case a month ago, we gave them all of the data in our possession and we will continue to support them with the data we have available.

Justice department officials claim to need access to the iPhones to see messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp to find out if Alshamrani discussed his plans or had help.

In 2016, Apple had a major showdown with the U.S. government after being ordered by a federal judge to unlock the iPhone owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. Apple fought hard against the order asking for backdoor access into iPhones and said that it would create "new and dangerous weaknesses" and that weakening security "makes no sense."

Apple ultimately won the dispute and the government found an alternate way to access the iPhone in question.

Apple is now facing a similar battle as the company's statement last week suggests it has no plans to unlock the two iPhones and the attorney general has said that he is prepared for a fight.

Update 6:43 p.m.: In a lengthy statement first shared by Input, Apple has responded to the Attorney General's comments, outlining the assistance it has provided and is continuing to provide to the the FBI, as well as its continued opposition to providing backdoors to its devices:

We were devastated to learn of the tragic terrorist attack on members of the US armed services at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida on December 6th. We have the greatest respect for law enforcement and routinely work with police across the country on their investigations. When law enforcement requests our assistance, our teams work around the clock to provide them with the information we have.

We reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing.

Within hours of the FBI's first request on December 6th, we produced a wide variety of information associated with the investigation. From December 7th through the 14th, we received six additional legal requests and in response provided information including iCloud backups, account information and transactional data for multiple accounts.

We responded to each request promptly, often within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that we had.

The FBI only notified us on January 6th that they needed additional assistance -- a month after the attack occurred. Only then did we learn about the existence of a second iPhone associated with the investigation and the FBI's inability to access either iPhone. It was not until January 8th that we received a subpoena for information related to the second iPhone, which we responded to within hours. Early outreach is critical to accessing information and finding additional options.

We are continuing to work with the FBI, and our engineering teams recently had a call to provide additional technical assistance. Apple has great respect for the Bureau's work, and we will work tirelessly to help them investigate this tragic attack on our nation.

We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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: U.S. Attorney General Asks Apple to Unlock iPhones Used by Florida Mass Shooter [Updated]

 

[IIGS User]

Ask away.

It won't come without a Court order. Verizon was the same way when I did high tech investigations many moons ago. Everyone else would take a simple subpoena based on an active investigation. Verizon wanted a search warrant.

It was a PITA, but guess who my wireless provider was, and still is...

 

[benshive]

I love that Apple doesn't acquiesce and agree to poke a hole in their customer's security every time the government tries to force them too.

 

[Black107]

Justice department officials claim to need access to the iPhones to see messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp to find out if Alshamrani discussed his plans or had help.

Welp, I guess we know which apps to use.

 

[iapplelove]

Either we have too many mass shootings or I live under a rock, cause I missed this last one.

 

[Mikey44]

As a consumer of Apple products, I love this.

As a citizen of the United States, I love what Apple is doing.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
― Edward Snowden

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
― Louis D. Brandeis

 

[alexandr]

I love that Apple doesn't acquiesce and agree to poke a hole in their customer's security every time the government tries to force them too.

i love who's security you're concerned with)

 

[now i see it]

does anyone think that shooters nowadays would even dream to use iPhones or smartphones to conspire with fellow comrades to embark on their endeavors?

 

[bizack]

Still amazing that the US Govt doesn't understand modern technology (including how the internet works). Apple can't unlock any iPhone. There's no master key to unlock any iPhone/device. This is going to turn into another 'please put a backdoor into future versions of iOS' request which (hopefully) won't ever happen. Meanwhile, companies/platforms like Facebook and Cambridge Analytics have enough information to identify and profile every citizen in the United States. Perhaps take that problem a bit more seriously. Oh, and maybe don't allow anyone to buy a gun. That might help too.

 

[robbysibrahim]

As a consumer of Apple products, I love this.

As a citizen of the United States, I love what Apple is doing.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
― Edward Snowden

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
― Louis D. Brandeis

I think of myself as the "nothing to hide" guy. But these quotes make two great points. Thanks for that.

 

[cardfan]

I’m all for privacy. Except in cases like this. If Apple can unlock these phones then they should given the circumstances.

And yet when Apple admits to scanning every photo uploaded to iCloud for signs of child abuse this is acceptable? What happened to privacy? It’s excused as saying Apple is committed to child safety. Sounds noble. As would assisting with unlocking a suspected terrorists iPhone.

 

[MN7119]

Wait!! Can't they just use his fingerprint or show the phone to his face to unlock it?

 

[DNichter]

I wouldn't do anything for Bill Barr, there is always another motive behind it. Plus, Apple can't do anything to get into the phone. I am not really sure what they are expecting.

 

[jav6454]

The government should just save face and call Cellibrite (or whatever the company is called) and have them unlock it.

Apple won't do it, and thus far, in this game of chicken, Apple has constantly won.

 

[manu chao]

Wait!! Can't they just use his fingerprint or show the phone to his face to unlock it?

That only works for a limited amount of time (at most several days), once that time has passed you have to enter the passcode. Same if the device was shut down (or ran out of battery and shut down because of that).

 

[NickName99]

It isn’t possible to fulfill this request. Apple can’t unlock iPhones. Even if they wrote a custom version of iOS that allowed them to unlock the iPhone, it would first be necessary to unlock the iPhone to update iOS.

 

[Chloros]

Didn't Apple just say at CES that they do scan through their icloud services for pedophilia thus invading peoples privacy?

 

[NickName99]

Wait!! Can't they just use his fingerprint or show the phone to his face to unlock it?

Once the iPhone has been powered off or restarted, 48 hours has passed, or FaceID/TouchID has failed 3 times, the password is required.

 

[lunarworks]

And yet when Apple admits to scanning every photo uploaded to iCloud for signs of child abuse this is acceptable? What happened to privacy? It’s excused as saying Apple is committed to child safety.

I haven't heard of this, but if they are, they're probably comparing file hashes to a regularly-updated list of hashes of known material, rather than scanning the content of the photos themselves. It's common practice in the cloud industry.

 

[benshive]

i love who's security you're concerned with)

So do I, my own. If Apple includes a backdoor into every iPhone (which would be required incase they could somehow know who every future mass shooter who owns an iPhone is) than that includes mine. And any backdoor is just waiting to be exploited by an attacker.

 

[manu chao]

Apple routinely fixes vulnerabilities (though only of few of them would pertain to accessing a locked phone). As some time will pass between Apple learning about the vulnerability and them issuing an OS update that fixes it, there will be time periods when Apple does have a way to get into a locked phone. In those situations, it could help the government without endangering the security of its users.

Of course, there are questions in which cases Apple should help the government (eg, requiring a court order) and it might still send an unwanted message even if Apple only does so very rarely. And the question which governments to help can be a slippery slope. It's a far cleaner solution to simply never unlock any iPhone.

 

[Chloros]

I haven't heard of this, but if they are, they're probably comparing file hashes to a regularly-updated list of hashes of known material, rather than scanning the content of the photos themselves. It's common practice in the cloud industry.

So then nothing is truly private? Just because its a common practice makes it ok for Apple to say we are 100% about privacy?
[automerge]1578948391[/automerge]
I guess its ok if you are a terrorist using an iPhone but not a pedophile.

 

[alecgold]

Didn't Apple just say at CES that they do scan through their icloud services for pedophilia thus invading peoples privacy?

I’m all for privacy. Except in cases like this. If Apple can unlock these phones then they should given the circumstances.

And yet when Apple admits to scanning every photo uploaded to iCloud for signs of child abuse this is acceptable? What happened to privacy? It’s excused as saying Apple is committed to child safety. Sounds noble. As would assisting with unlocking a suspected terrorists iPhone.

iCloud isn’t as protected as the iPhone itself. iCloud isn’t completely encrypted either. They are working on that, but it’s not yet.
Whatsapp and signal don’t use the iCloud so Apple can’t see what’s in these apps as they have end to end encryption. So Barr wants Apple to break those specific iPhones to see if it is possible to find accomplices financiers and the likes.

I really hope Apple will resist this stupid push from governments. It’s not just in the USA, also in the Netherlands, UK and France I’ve seen politicians shout silly ideas.
the US government has at least some leverage by going to court etc. How would e.g. the Netherlands force Apple? Ban sales of iPhones? The would annoy at least 20% of their voters. And not the poorest or not-interested voters.

 

[realtuner]

I’m all for privacy. Except in cases like this. If Apple can unlock these phones then they should given the circumstances.

And yet when Apple admits to scanning every photo uploaded to iCloud for signs of child abuse this is acceptable? What happened to privacy? It’s excused as saying Apple is committed to child safety. Sounds noble. As would assisting with unlocking a suspected terrorists iPhone.

Didn't Apple just say at CES that they do scan through their icloud services for pedophilia thus invading peoples privacy?

Two people who don't understand the issue.

Apple can't unlock an iPhone. Apple can, however, get access to data stored in iCloud if required. They are two completely separate things.

 

[lunarworks]

So then nothing is truly private? Just because its a common practice makes it ok for Apple to say we are 100% about privacy?

It's one of those weird grey zones, in that they're not looking at the file itself, but seeing if it has matching qualities as known contraband. It's like a sniffer dog walking past suitcases at the airport. (They're not bringing the dog into your home.)