Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #1

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Zitat

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. magistrate ordered Apple Inc. on Tuesday to help the Obama administration hack into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the December attack in San Bernardino, California, in a first-of-its-kind ruling that pits digital privacy against national security interests.

The ruling by Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, a former federal prosecutor, requires Apple to supply highly specialized software the FBI can load onto the county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature, which erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. The FBI wants to be able to try different combinations in rapid sequence until it finds the right one.

The decision gives the Justice Department a significant victory in an entrenched technology policy battle, as more-powerful encryption services threaten the ability of federal agents to uncover important evidence in criminal or terrorism cases. The Obama administration, which has embraced stronger encryption as a way to keep consumers safe on the Internet, had struggled to find a compelling example to make its case.

The ruling Tuesday tied the problem to the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a Dec. 2 shooting at a holiday luncheon for Farook's co-workers. The couple later died in a gun battle with police.

Federal prosecutors told the judge in a court application Tuesday that they can't access a work phone used by Syed Farook because they don't know his passcode and Apple has not cooperated. Under U.S. law, a work phone is generally the property of a person's employer. The judge told Apple to provide an estimate of its cost to comply with her order, suggesting that the government will be expected to pay for the work.

Apple has provided default encryption on its iPhones since 2014, allowing any device's contents to be accessed only by the user who knows the phone's passcode.

The Cupertino, California-based company did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press asking about the case.

The order requires that the software Apple provides be programmed to work only on Farook's phone, but it was not clear how readily that safeguard could be circumvented. The order said Apple has five days to notify the court if it believes the ruling is unreasonably burdensome.

It also was not immediately clear what investigators believe they might find on Farook's work phone or why the information would not be available from third-party service providers, such as Google or Facebook, though investigators think the device may hold clues about whom the couple communicated with and where they may have traveled.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-a...ocid=spartanntp

I have mixed feelings about this. I wish Apple had freely cooperated with the FBI on this as the phone might contain information relevant to Farook and the investigation. He's dead so questions of personal privacy are mute.

OTOH, I am less than thrilled to see a judge ordering a private company to assist the feds in a criminal investigation. Judicial overreach?

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IMHO definitely judicial overreach. I'm of the opinion one ought never give the government power you wouldn't give your worst enemy.

And ... now I'm wondering how is all that money used to track the minutia of our lives us being spent? Is there no one in the NSA or FBI or all of the fourth branch of government who can reverse engineer the code used to encrypt the phone? There already are examples of code that lock you out of many applications after a set number of tries.

Is all that tracking we are exposed to is mainly focused on ensuring that we comply with the onerous burden of regulations used to ensure we keep our carbon footprint small, pay all our taxes, etc. under the guise of keeping us safe and fighting 'terrorism'?

I found Apple's response:

http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

FYI Microsoft built in a back door starting with WIndows 95 version 2.

Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #6

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Someone has pointed out there is a certain amount of hypocrisy present as Apple apparently does some tracking of customer usage in order to target ads based on shopping, inquiries, and so forth. Perhaps we have an apple user among us who can speak to this.

One thing for sure, you have to admire Apple's encryption features given that the FBI and other government agencies cannot crack it.

Just out of curiosity I tried to find out if Apple supported Republicans or the party of big government, the Democrats. I found a site which lists the political contributions of Apple employees (talk about privacy), including Tim Cook who made 2 significant contributions to "Friends of Schumer". The data runs for a dozen pages and thus is too voluminous to really sort out, plus the real story is in how much the corporation and its executives support the Democrats.

You promote the party of big government, don't be surprised if Leviathan turns around and bites you on the bum.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/apple_computer.asp

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