Apple ordered to create software to help unlock a phone for FBI

[Wormius]

Maybe they could, but if they have to tamper with the phone too much, at some point does any data recovered become inadmissible or inactionable because of how it was retrieved?

I kind of wonder if it would be in Apples best interest to just give them a hack that "accidentally" erases the phone. Maybe the FBI will never ask again.

[Resolute 14]

That would be a fantastic way to be held in contempt of court.

And the reason why the FBI won't try other methods is that they don't actually care about the data. It isn't what they are after. The government wants a judge to order Apple itself to undermine encryption itself. This is only an early salvo in what will be a long battle. The FBI's goal is to, if not criminalize encryption entirely, to undermine it to the point that it is worthless.

[Resolute 14]

A former director of the CIA agrees with me: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/11/fbi-w...cia-chief.html

"The last time I looked into the language on this with some care, it did seem to me as if the FBI was trying to get a right essentially to effectively decide what kind of an operating system Apple was going to have, and that they were not just trying to get into one phone. They were trying to change some important aspect of Apple's operating system," Woolsey told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

The bureau could likely unlock the iPhone, Woolsey said, but the manner in which it wants to accomplish that goal would make it necessary for Apple to create a backdoor into its phones. The company shouldn't have to do that, he said.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

LOL, well that kind of blew up in Apple's face... The old "fine, we'll do it without you" ruse...

Now Apple will have to deal with the stigma that iOS has it's own vulnerabilities and the government will never have to divulge what it knows on the grounds of national security.

Check, and mate.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/21/f...nto-iphone-5c/

[TorqueDog]

^ Not so fast. 1. They don't know if it's viable on the 5c, and 2. what works on an iPhone 5c might not be viable on the 5s and newer due to the security enclave on newer models, starting with the A7 chips.

[Resolute 14]

No, that didn't blow up in Apple's face at all. In fact, I would say it blew up in the FBI's face. They wanted an easy case to make a court undermine Apple's efforts to strengthen encryption and, ultimately, force backdoors into the software - and though "But ISIS" would be the argument that made people accept it. Instead, they received nearly unprecedented opposition and finally backed away somewhat from using the courts to undermine everyone's security and privacy.

Also, you clearly didn't read the entire article, IHH, because they have said they are only testing their alternate method, and if it proves unsuccessful, they intend to return to court and resume trying to bully Apple into capitulation.

But even if they are successful, the end result is that while the FBI would still get into this phone on its own, Apple, Google, Microsoft and the others would still be able to work on continually improving encryption, privacy and security.

[Resolute 14]

https://twitter.com/EFF/status/714574923180605440

EFFVerified account
‏@EFF
BREAKING: FBI asks court to drop San Bernardino order against Apple, announcing it got into the phone without the company's help.

Didn't get the public support they expected "but terrorists!" would generate, backed off its efforts to create precedent. Good.

[Azure]

Except now phone manufacturers will be more inclined to harden the phones even more. Terrible management by the FBI.

[Wormius]

It's interesting how the FBI may have done it, which is physically remove the memory chip from the circuit board and brute force the password until they get it then put the memory chip back on the phone.

In the future Apple would have to integrate the entire memory onto the processor to prevent that, if that is what the FBI did. I have heard of some other security problems with the 5C though.

Or maybe the memory isn't really fully deleted if the password is entered wrong 10 times. They could have tested different theories on a sample of the phones to see what the result would be.

[AcGold]

Call me crazy but I just assumed our phones had backdoors already. Data goes straight to these guys in multiple different databases, creates a personality heuristic for behavior prediction and tracking.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRIS...llance_program)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAINWAY

Predicting things logically these programs have been monitoring worldwide for some time, wouldn't make sense not to dealing with fibre optic systems capable of processing peta or exaflops. Simple algorithms and backdoors would get it done.