question about apple/governmen

[NOT_PROVIDED_514]

I been reading the news about the government asking apple to unlock the san bernadino phones, and apple said no...

Is this for publicity, to make it seem like the government cannot hack these phones? I would like to think we have people in NSA who could crack almost anything they would like.

How true is it that the encryption is that hard to unlock their phones?

 

[photonboy]

1. It's not for publicity. It's the news simply reporting a current event.

2. Yes, good encryption is hard to crack.

It's possible to make it IMPOSSIBLE even such as erasing a firmware holding the decryption code if the password is entered incorrectly a certain number of times. This solution already exists, though I'm not certain if iPhone has that capability.

3. The NSA can't legally crack a phone in most circumstances. Even if they could, the information would be useless in court. If it was deemed LEGAL then Apple could provide the password. If it was NOT legal then obtaining the password doesn't help.

Simply put, the government needs to be very clear about what circumstances allow for Apple to provide the password. It can't be up to Apple's interpretation either.

Basically some sort or court order.

The law obviously has to be rewritten which is pretty tricky business when discussing freedom vs security issues.

 

[larkspur]

photonboy - He's talking about the iphone from the San Bernardino terrorists. The feds already have a court order. Apple is basically telling them no, we won't give you any of our master keys because then you can crack any older iphone, anytime.

First-off - this is an iphone 5c. It doesn't have secure-enclave so it is vulnerable to an OS update. Apple could unlock the phone by writing an OS update that would unlock the phone. To institute the updates Apple uses a master key.

I dunno, all just speculation but here's my take on what's happening: It's now been two and a half months since the shooting - the NSA has long since unlocked that phone. They already have Apple's source code and the master key - these people are not amateurs. But they certainly would never admit that they have them, that's for sure.

Immediately after that shooting the FBI wanted to unlock that phone to find out as much as possible about the terrorists and whether they operated within a larger cell - think about it - the reason they are just now getting around to this court order is only because they want to set a precedent. They already unlocked the phone but they want it to be easier. They are ready for the judicial battle. They want a judicial precedent in place so they can order any tech company to help them with a backdoor. They realize that people aren't going to accept the security-back-door legislation that some States and Senators want to force on tech companies and the people and so they are using the judiciary to get the same thing done.

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_514]

photonboy - He's talking about the iphone from the San Bernardino terrorists. The feds already have a court order. Apple is basically telling them no, we won't give you any of our master keys because then you can crack any older iphone, anytime.

First-off - this is an iphone 5c. It doesn't have secure-enclave so it is vulnerable to an OS update. Apple could unlock the phone by writing an OS update that would unlock the phone. To institute the updates Apple uses a master key.

I dunno, all just speculation but here's my take on what's happening: It's now been two and a half months since the shooting - the NSA has long since unlocked that phone. They already have Apple's source code and the master key - these people are not amateurs. But they certainly would never admit that they have them, that's for sure.

Immediately after that shooting the FBI wanted to unlock that phone to find out as much as possible about the terrorists and whether they operated within a larger cell - think about it - the reason they are just now getting around to this court order is only because they want to set a precedent. They already unlocked the phone but they want it to be easier. They are ready for the judicial battle. They want a judicial precedent in place so they can order any tech company to help them with a backdoor. They realize that people aren't going to accept the security-back-door legislation that some States and Senators want to force on tech companies and the people and so they are using the judiciary to get the same thing done.

Perfect answer. I was thinking it had something to do with the publicity for some reason.

I don't know anything about hacking, so I had a feeling the NSA could of already hacked the phone, if not, they would of already put out a court order.

I see apple is trying to take the approach of we are secure and protect your data to make them look good...

 

[larkspur]

I see apple is trying to take the approach of we are secure and protect your data to make them look good...

Well, remember I was just speculating. I wouldn't say that Apple is doing it to look good - I think they genuinely know that their customers don't want backdoors in their products. Their newest phones (and all computers in general) are getting stronger and stronger encryption/intrusion prevention techniques. This makes it harder for law enforcement to snoop around easily and they hate it. Hence why suddenly some legislators want to force tech companies to make backdoors. I seriously doubt that Apple would willingly give their source code or keys to the NSA. I'm guessing they were likely "acquired" in another way...