Can Apple crack the San Bernardino killers' iPhone for the FBI? Sure, if they build an 'FBiOS'

boing
41

True that.

42

Am I just too conspiracy minded that I see a very public, and very orchestrated, declaration of customer support and encryption protection from a company (and now from other companies) that previously colluded with the security services in secret?

Won’t Apple srsly enjoy the PR benefits of being publicly ordered to break encryption for the benefit of the security services and be free from the silencing effects of a gag order so that it may stand proud and tall and mighty and in the spotlight and declare NO!! to the nasty, menacing and invasive security services. Those rotters.

#For I am a river to my people!

 
We’ll do what you want, just let us publicly declare that we won’t.

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43

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, there are a lot that think that Apple may have made a misstep by using the term “backdoor” in their refusal. The FBI is asking for a custom firmware to unlock a phone, or at least allow them to brute force passwords without the fear of the device being erased. The worst case scenario would be for the FBI to win, and then the precedent be used further down the road as it being acceptable to backdoor crypto, which is not what this case is technically about.

44

You realize that it isn’t a “third party” if your own phone is decrypting your own data. This is the same principle, they’re just finding ways to brute force pretending to be the phone’s owner. All encryption has a key. That’s kind of the point.

Because it is encrypted?

Except security experts have already pointed out that we know they are the ones to use, for the most part, unless you’re an edge case.

47

I mean, wouldn’t a large technology company that was already colluding with the security services want to predicate their collusion on a deal to simultaneously deny any collusion, with the help of said security services?

Unmetered collusion is obviously bad for business, and I appreciate that there will always be degrees of it necessary, but what with the now very public acknowledged overreach of those security services and their ability to force cooperation in secret using gag orders and other means of the state, wouldn’t the public face of that collusion look something like what we’re seeing?

I’m not suggesting the conspiracy is involved in producing a slippery slope or knocking over the first domino in a chain of consequences, rather that many tech companies have already bent over backwards and are currently belly up performing tricks for the spooks. All this contorted cooperation would surely buy them the privilege of at least obtaining the option to publicly declare their will not to acquiesce.

The worst case scenario is that the FBI or some other concatenation of agencies already has won and that this non-gagged order to cooperate is orchestrated to smooth things over with the customer.

Or

Like, I said. Conspiracy bruh.

48

Hmmm…and you know this is Apple how?

49

My fillings accidentally tuned in to a secrit gubmint radio station?

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50

Pre-coffee headline parsing reenactment:

  • F-bios? What’s an f-bios? Maybe the post explains it.
  • [Reads post] nope. Wtf? F-bios?
  • Stare at headline, hey why isn’t the “i” capitalized?
  • Ooooh, I get it, it’s ‘FBI-os’…
  • [Makes coffee]
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51

My point is that an encrypted system should be designed to minimize attacks like that.

Apple (or anyone else) should not be able to change the OS or firmware while the phone is locked. Ideally the system won’t start without its key, and will fail in the event of tampering.

It sounds like the iPhone 5/5C are lacking in this respect

52

So you’ve never used an iPhone? :slightly_smiling:
If you want a device that needs a passcode to decrypt and finish booting, I recommend cyanogenmod on a Nexus phone.

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53

All I’ve ever seen is people congratulating for doing the right thing, even if they also amend ‘for once.’

I’m grateful they are, because Apple is one of the few entities that could fight a protracted legal battle without getting eaten alive.

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54

Never for long, no.

I just think that a locked device should be inviolable, not subject to updates without owner’s consent.

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55

I’ve never had an iOS device install an OS update without asking. It prompts.

Update: This is apparently a feature of later iOS versions (which I run). From a WaPo article:

56

If people are pissed about this, then it’s their own damn fault for being as dumb as a box of rocks. I’m as un-Apple as they get and I think this is the right thing to do for any company.

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57

I guess that mean you aren’t Donald Trump, after all.

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58

I wouldn’t say it comes down to people being dumb, as much as not really understanding the technologies or sociopolitical stakes.

One of the more vexing things is the FBI framing the argument as “privacy vs security”. The media in turn runs with that quote, and then you get a whole lot of people coming to the conclusion that it is a simple trade-off and the people on both sides just need to “compromise”.

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59

Yeah, dumb, that’s what I said. If they don’t want to bother sitting down to think about the stakes they’re dumb as rocks. I’m not even comfortable with private companies with all the data they have.

60

“I just thought of that” - Trump should finish every statement with that phrase.

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61

Funnily enough…

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/700780064250720259

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62

I was making the argument that a lot of people don’t have the information needed to make an informed decision, and instead are making comments that the experts on both sides need to hash it out. Maybe instead of just calling them dumb, try your hand at educating people if you know more on the topic than they do.