Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Government directing Apple to hack phones.

Apple has Posted the message below, in response to Government demands that they hack the San Bernardino terrorists phones.
What do we think?

February 16, 2016 "A Message to Our Customers
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.

The Need for Encryption
Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.

All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.

Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.

For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.

The San Bernardino Case
We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.

When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The Threat to Data Security
Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.

In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. 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.

We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

A Dangerous Precedent
Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.

We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.

While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

Tim Cook"

IMHO, morally and ethically, he's right. Legally, he's about to go to jail. The gov is going to make an example of him and that is a sad thing.

If the FBI wants the information so bad, let them crack it.

People forget that future administrations can, and will, use tools to defeat our rights.

Ed

Apple is protecting their sales to the ISIS demographic.

I'm proud Apple is standing up to them. I can't believe the conservatives here are so quick to give government complete control over all aspects of their lives in the name of safety.

W T H are you talking about?

Nobody here has defended the government's pressure on Apple.

Apple is marketing to people like me who like our privacy.

I believe the Swiss should have told the good old US government to f' off when our government demanded that the bankers cough up the names of US citizens with accounts.

Why should the government know all our business.

IT'S TOTAL HORSECRAP.

Actually, I also read your response about protecting their ISIS customer base as being on the side of .gov, too. Kinda confused me 'cause you're not exactly a facist lover...

Ed

Apple is withholding info in a criminal investigation. No ifs, ands or buts about that.

The Feds should be applauded for letting unvetted terrorists into the country (Apple did?), summarily defunded and all employees sent home for doing such a good job.....and proclaim from home to do what they couldn't do with the same act with an agency that didn't exist (and obviously wouldn't) for over a hundred years from 1789....

Feds should hand over phone over to Apple. Let their techs retrieve whatever is on phone and turn that info over to feds. No way should Apple create a back door for the Feds.

The Feds are importing criminals...but let's keep making this about Apple, commie.

Apple is with holding nothing. Apple never designed a back door and is refusing to develop one. So in reality they are withholding squat.

Apple is doing the right thing, if .gov wants in I guess they better up their game.

Just remember Chuck they're here to help except they can't, keep trusting you'll see.

Sanders 2016! LMAO.

As I posted in the other thread about this (lots of layman-speak techie info in the Wired article):

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/magistrate-...ardino-shooter/

"In an ironic twist, however, the FBI didn’t ask the court to order Apple to unlock the phone, but merely to help the FBI in its bruteforce attempts to unlock the device on its own"

As others have said, once that backdoor exists Pandora's Box has been opened.

Here's Apple's response: http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

This is bad, folks. Apple should not comply.

Feds have the phone not Apple. So Apple isn't withholding anything.

Good for Apple!!

No, apple does not have the info. Apple made the phone.

The dirty Muslim and his fugly wife had an apple phone which the government now owns. The info is in the phone.

The government is demanding that a private US entity take its valuable time and create a program to help the government unlock a phone owned by the government. Then the government will undoubtedly take the program and have it to use on any phone it comes in possession of, with or WITHOUT a court order. The government is like a teenage boy telling a girl that they just want to put the tip in.

But.....Apple has unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 times before!

Click Here!

Having dealt with court orders for years, you have two choices - turn over the information or face criminal charges. Take your pick.

What is Apple really trying to protect here? Could it be that they want to be the cell phone of choice for *ucking Muzzies?

That is exactly what Apple has been asked to do and Apple or its CEO is refusing do so. On this phone only!

Keep in mind this is not "the Feds" who are asking for this information, they had to go in front of a judge and prove probable cause that their was information on the phone related to additional individuals that are in some way engaged in criminal activities. The judge agreed with the Feds and issued the court order that Apple turn over information stored on the phone. Apple has two choices, turn over the information or someone at Apple is going to jail. Judges really get their panties in a twist if you ignore or deny their request for information.

Makes no difference Walt. It's a corportion vs the government and around here corporation can do no wrong.