Apple's letter explaining why it won't give the FBI a backdoor to the iPhone

[Read the post]

"Again, we strongly believe the only way to guarantee that such a powerful tool isnā€™t abused and doesnā€™t fall into the wrong hands is to never create it."

Roger fucking that!

20 Likes

why digits? letters and special characters are available too.

1 Like

I guess one of the reasons why Iā€™m not in PR is that an open letter to the FBI on the subject Iā€™d send would essentially be:

'Thankfully weā€™ve got tax accountant wizards to minimize the amount of money we end up paying for the idiots that run an organisation that routinely dealing with the worst examples of humanity and yet some how think that this backdoor we would be compelled to create will not get leaked or used nefariously etc.

So, in the politest possible sense, jog on.

yours etc.

Apple.ā€™

2 Likes

Not on my iPhone they arenā€™t. Your options are a number pad.

1 Like

OMFG.

Fuck it. Iā€™m going back to Cyanogenmod and encrypting my device until I enter a passcode on boot.

1 Like

Wasā€¦ that not what you had in mind? A simple way to enable letters and special characters on the iPhone passcode screen?

1 Like

[quote=ā€œfrauenfelder, post:1, topic:74087ā€]ā€œtake up to 253 years, and on average 127 years, to crack.ā€[/quote]Does that not unrealistically assume technology will stagnate? Remember that code from 1977 that was broken less than 20 years later ā€“ about 40 quadrillion years ahead of schedule?

2 Likes

Separate issues. :slight_smile:

So now Apple says that it can crack it, but wont because of precedent. That just tells everyone that there is, in fact, a way in. Knowing that there is a vulnerability just makes it easier to find it. Iā€™m going to bet that even before this gets to court someone will have cracked it and Apple would have patched the vulnerability in itā€™s next version. :slightly_smiling:

1 Like

the FBI shouldnā€™t be able to unlock your encrypted
phone, even if it installs a backdoored version of iOS on it. Not unless
it has hundreds of years to spare.

yeah thatā€™s nice and all, but Iā€™m fighting the Rosicrucians.

1 Like

Theyā€™re not really saying they can ā€˜crackā€™ it, as if itā€™s an encryption they can just solve if they wanted to. Theyā€™re saying what theyā€™ve always said: the only way to get the information would be to create new software that doesnā€™t exist, a custom OS to allow the FBI in.

2 Likes

We already knew they had a way in. They have the PRIVATE KEY used to sign all iOS releases. Since they ship new versions of iOS, we already knew of this power to sign the releases as Apple so your phone would take them.

2 Likes

Apple:

Its OK if we screw with the privacy of our customers, but we will be damned if we let the government do it. At least the customers are paying us to screw with them by their own choice.

1 Like

In what way are they screwing with their customersā€™ privacy? I think the whole point theyā€™re making is that their commitment to their customersā€™ privacy is excellent and will not be compromised.

3 Likes

So basically they would jailbreak it.
Just ready a good article explaining more details:
arstechnica

The FBI could actually write the hack, but they would still need Appleā€™s software signing key so the phone allows the patch to be applied. Having Apple do it puts the burden of trust on them to make the code specific only to this phone and they could destroy the code.
So, itā€™s really not making a backdoor, itā€™s just like lending out your front door key. Butā€¦ they would be giving the key to the FBI, so thereā€™s that.

1 Like

How much of your personal information do you think Apple sells off to outside marketers?

Well, none, given that that lawsuit was apparently baseless and never went through.

5 Likes

Now compare this to how much of your data Google sells.

6 Likes