FBI escalates war with Apple: 'marketing' bigger concern than terror

FBI escalates war with Apple: 'marketing' bigger concern than terror

www.theguardian.com...

Though being a longtime IT specialist I have left the technology idol worship in the iphone age, so I’m not too adept into phone freakery....So I have not much of an opinion on the technical aspect of this case, this Apple, FBI fracas over opening up the terrorist’s phone.


Is Apple really interested in some honest idea of liberty and privacy or just protecting their image and bottom line?


Of course I don’t trust the government, the FBI, in this instance nor do I trust what I think is just another capitalist predator in Apple.


Another interesting thing about this is the timing.

Why does it come up now?

Incidentally, something that will become a huge legal case just at the very time of the death of Scalia.

Umm…

The government has asked Apple to write and digitally sign software that would make it easier for investigators to guess the passcode for an iPhone 5C used by Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the December attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead.

Apple said that forcing it to do so would undermine trust in the security of its company’s products. The government, in effect, would be forcing it to hack one of its phones through the automatic update process consumers use monthly.“The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe,” Cook wrote.

a reply to: Willtell

I've been puzzling over this "development" as well. Why was it made public? There's always a story behind the story.

I can understand Apple wanting to protect their bottom line and the security of their product.

If Apple refuses to comply will the FBI start bullying them and making life difficult for them? We've seen how intimidation has become the norm in this country.

I bet Apple already did whatever the FBI wants.

Now comes the marketing psy-ops and controlled opposition and PR damage control.

The FBI is just doing an experiment to gauge public opinion.

I have shown over and over that there are software programs that forensic experts use that are even compatible with iOS 9 that can crack into the phone without bricking it.

There's no reason for them to request this of Apple. They already can do this on their own if they want. Hell, your local police can. The software even makes a nice little report with bullet points and easy to navigate tabs for different info for the police.

a reply to: Willtell

Oh, OK; it was Apple that publicized the court order, asking for public debate. I've repeatedly come across statements in the last few years that encryption is getting better and better and has the FBI and NSA PO'd which was long before this story came to light.

There's a hearing on March 22nd. That's worth following up on.

I know some of you won't agree because you think the FBI has figured it out already and this is a psy-op or the like but... I have to ask the question -- has Apple outsmarted the FBI temporarily?

What a farce.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I don't have any Apple products and don't keep up with any advancements they make so I can't speak from a place of knowing.

I do want to see where this issue goes.

I've thought about this for a bit.

Is the FBI trying to force Apple to make it legal, via the court order, for the FBI to crack the security for their phones even though the FBI can already do it (according to what has been stated already in this thread)? I hope my question is clear.

Considering John McAfee offered to decrypt for free and the FBI hasn't taken them up on the offer, I believe the FBI is simply doing what Apple is trying to prevent which having the ability to protect their stuff.

I also believe the FBI CAN figure it out but wants Apple's info.

If I'm wrong and the FBI can't figure it out, how inept and pathetic they are. And it isn't just the FBI, its ALL the 'security' agencies. Is anyone telling me that this phone's encryption can't be figured out by any of them?

By the way, after all the billions in data mining the US has done, I was watching a video that said only one plot was discovered and it was rather a flutter than an actual plot. Granted, it's good to keep alert but the money and effort put into it hasn't stopped these attacks since 9/11:

Beltway sniper attacks, killed 10 people over three weeks
UNC vehicle attack, Nine students were injured on March 3, 2006
Seattle Jewish Center shooting, six women shot, one died
Little Rok Military Recruiting Center shooting, killing one soldier
Ft. Hood Massacre, killing 12, injuring over 30
Times Square bombing attempt, a bomb placed in a vehicle parked in the square on May 1, 2010, but it failed to explode.
Boston Marathon bombing, 3 killed, over 200 injured
Oklahoma Vaughn Foods beheading, beheaded a coworker and stabbed and injured another on September 24, 2014.
Queens hatchet attack, injured 3
NY police officers, killed and then the killer committed suicide

Texas Art show, would-be killers Elton Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi shot a security guard in the ankle at the "First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest" on May 3, 2015, before being shot and killed themselves by a quick-thinking Garland police officer, The Dallas Morning News reported. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and both gunmen pledged allegiance to the terrorist group on Twitter before being killed.

Chattanooga Recruiting Center shootings, 5 killed
San Bernardino, we all remember what just happened there.

It's easier to find a needle in small bin of straw than a hay bale. Too much information is a hindrance rather than a help.


I know, I know, this is off topic, but after reading and hearing some scuttle on oil prices, I told my friends this last Sunday at a food fest that the price of gas would be going up. I stated it would be this week. Gas in my town went up 10 cents a gallon on Wednesday and another 10 cents a gallon today. So, FYI; not worth a thread. Oh, they didn't believe me so their loss. I filled all my vehicles and gas cans so I'm happy I was paying attention.

I don't mean to hog this thread, so please forgive me, but this just showed up on my Twitter feed from Wired:

Link

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Oh really.

Why would the FBI want to do that?


Why not just take a poll


btw thanks for the information.

originally posted by: tweetie
I don't mean to hog this thread, so please forgive me, but this just showed up on my Twitter feed from Wired:

Link

Go ahead, hog all you want. This is about learning

thank you for the info

Okay, we need to check out what Scalia has done in this matter.

Of course this is a long shot but sometimes longshots come in

a reply to: Willtell

What Apple does in market their phones partially on their security and privacy which includes their password protection and encryption.

What the FBI wants is a way to bypass that password protection feature that wipes a phone after so many password failures.

In this particular case, the FBI absolutely has every legal right to have that data. The person who had that phone is a criminal and guilty and they have a warrant for it. There is no 4th Amendment issue at stake.

The issue isn't necessarily about this phone though. The issue is that once the FBI has the means to bypass one phone, they can bypass others with the same program, with or without a warrant and that program and method of cracking exist and could get out.

To me, it would seem the solution for Apple would be to add an individualized marker to every phone that needs to be added to the general key they give law enforcement, so that without the individual phone marker, the key is still useless, but in obtaining a warrant for an individual phone, the security of every other one on the market is not potentially compromised.

Antonin Scalia Emerges As Fighter For Fourth Amendment Privacy Rights

talkingpointsmemo.com...

The advent of new technologies and government spying in our increasingly inter-connected world has brought a swath of deeply consequential privacy rights cases before the Supreme Court.

Whether it's privacy in one's home, car or cellphone, Justice Antonin Scalia has emerged as one of the Court's most outspoken champions of Fourth Amendment rights in recent years, even if it means breaking faith and siding with liberal justices in closely divided cases.

Scalia's role as the premier defender of Fourth Amendment rights could be critical in a closely watched case currently before the Court about whether police can search a suspect's cellphone without a warrant upon arrest.
"Justice Scalia has been on the pro-privacy side of a lot of divided Fourth Amendment cases, especially recently ... [and] often very strongly," said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University.

I don't really want to start no Scalia thread but I just thought Id post this that Scalia apparently may have been on Apples side in this fight.

Of course that's just a coincidence

Just thought Id connect these items

a reply to: Willtell

Like I said ... The FBI has a legal right to the data on the phone for their investigation as it's under warrant. The problem is how to let them have it without also endangering the privacy of everyone else with data on a similar model phone.

Where do you come down on that? These days, no one keeps hard copy records, and if it becomes known that all you have to do to plan illegal activities is keep your plans on an iPhone because law enforcement won't be able to pull that evidence, then what does that say about Apple? Even in the good old days of pen and pencil, no one said that law enforcement couldn't search through a crook's personal papers with a warrant.

Here is some background on the iOS security, should anyone be interested and haven't done some research.

a reply to: ketsuko

Look If Apple is going to help the government then they should probably go and do it and not do some half-ass help.

The fact is that all these companies have likely already tainted themselves by helping them in the past.

It’s like the mafia and crooked cops. The only cops the mafia might kill are crooked ones who had already lain down with them.

It’s like the old maxim

If you lie down with dogs you come up with fleas

Apple already has a lot of fleas

GOP presidential contender Donald Trump is urging his followers to boycott Apple until it complies with the US government in its ongoing encryption battle.

"First of all, Apple ought to give [authorities] the security to that phone," Trump told the crowd at a South Carolina rally on Friday. "What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until they give that security number. I just thought of that—boycott Apple.”

What does this say about what he would favor in gov actions.

I wonder if he understands that, in general, some passwords cannot be derived from the stored data representing it, such as one that is hashed.

I believe that Apple is really trying to stand up for people's privacy.

originally posted by: roadgravel

GOP presidential contender Donald Trump is urging his followers to boycott Apple until it complies with the US government in its ongoing encryption battle.

"First of all, Apple ought to give [authorities] the security to that phone," Trump told the crowd at a South Carolina rally on Friday. "What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until they give that security number. I just thought of that—boycott Apple.”

What does this say about what he would favor in gov actions.

I wonder if he understands that, in general, some passwords cannot be derived from the stored data representing it, such as one that is hashed.

True also to mention that him and some other GOP contenders(Minus Rand) also agreed with a database on every citizen in the US for security reasons.