San Bernardino victims to support FBI in iPhone decryption fight
Families of the victims of last year's San Bernardino massacre plan to file a legal brief in support of U.S. Department of Justice efforts to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters, adding weight to the government's case against Apple, a report said Sunday.
A lawyer representing the victims told Reuters that his clients have a special interest in seeing Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c unlocked and its data analyzed.
"They were targeted by terrorists, and they need to know why, how this could happen," said Stephen Larson, who served as a federal judge before going private.
Tashfeen Malik, Farook's wife and accomplice in the San Bernardino attack, pledged her loyalty to terrorist group ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook prior to carrying out the attack. The Islamic State later took responsibility for the shooting that left 14 people dead, not including the couple who died in an ensuing gun battle with law enforcement officers.
FBI and Justice Department officials are seeking information potentially stored on Farook's iPhone 5c, but the device is protected by a passcode. Officials were able to recover iCloud backups saved on Apple's servers, though the most recent data dates back to October 19.
A federal magistrate judge last week ordered Apple to assist in FBI forensic efforts, an action supported by a DOJ motion to compel filed days later.
Apple CEO Tim Cook posted an open letter to Apple's website opposing the request, saying the company has no tools in its arsenal that can break iOS encryption. Further, creating a workaround would fundamentally undermine the security protocols currently being used to protect consumer information stored on hundreds of millions of iOS devices.
"We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected," Cook said. "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."
It was learned late last week that the FBI purposely called on the iPhone 5c's owner San Bernardino County Department of Health, where Farook worked for five years, to reset the associated Apple ID password hours after impounding the device in December in an attempt to glean on-site data. Apple engineers, who were not made aware of the change until they were consulted January, said the move negated the possibility of extracting data from the handset without also breaking its encryption.
Apple is scheduled to respond to the court order on Feb. 26.
A lawyer representing the victims told Reuters that his clients have a special interest in seeing Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone 5c unlocked and its data analyzed.
"They were targeted by terrorists, and they need to know why, how this could happen," said Stephen Larson, who served as a federal judge before going private.
Tashfeen Malik, Farook's wife and accomplice in the San Bernardino attack, pledged her loyalty to terrorist group ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook prior to carrying out the attack. The Islamic State later took responsibility for the shooting that left 14 people dead, not including the couple who died in an ensuing gun battle with law enforcement officers.
FBI and Justice Department officials are seeking information potentially stored on Farook's iPhone 5c, but the device is protected by a passcode. Officials were able to recover iCloud backups saved on Apple's servers, though the most recent data dates back to October 19.
A federal magistrate judge last week ordered Apple to assist in FBI forensic efforts, an action supported by a DOJ motion to compel filed days later.
Apple CEO Tim Cook posted an open letter to Apple's website opposing the request, saying the company has no tools in its arsenal that can break iOS encryption. Further, creating a workaround would fundamentally undermine the security protocols currently being used to protect consumer information stored on hundreds of millions of iOS devices.
"We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected," Cook said. "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."
It was learned late last week that the FBI purposely called on the iPhone 5c's owner San Bernardino County Department of Health, where Farook worked for five years, to reset the associated Apple ID password hours after impounding the device in December in an attempt to glean on-site data. Apple engineers, who were not made aware of the change until they were consulted January, said the move negated the possibility of extracting data from the handset without also breaking its encryption.
Apple is scheduled to respond to the court order on Feb. 26.
Comments
The FBI is close to being the most sickening organisation in the US.
/s. For those who miss the sarcasm.
The bad guys employer screwed up 2x: no MDM and even reset the FRIGGIN' password.
It's too bad the FBI is exploiting their grief in this blatant fashion.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/05/san-bernardino-victim-had-argued-with-shooter-about-islam
The 'how' was the acquisition of weapons:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/san-bernardino-shooters-arsenal-detailed-injury-count-increases/story?id=35551325
Somebody sold them all that and it wasn't Apple. The terrorists didn't kill anyone using an iPhone. The motive was religious fanaticism, the opportunity was easy access to high power weapons and ammunition. That's all any terrorist needs, they don't need a phone at all. All a phone is for is the same thing we all use phones for - to keep in contact with people. If this was some stranger to the victims who had appeared in the US out of nowhere and managed to build up a cache of weapons very quickly while not being a citizen then there would be questions about national security. This action could have been done by anyone like the Colorado cinema shooting.
Authorities have found phones belonging to terrorists before. The Paris attackers had basic communication on them:
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/17/lets-go-text-found-on-paris-attackers-cell-phone.html
They also found photos of potential future targets on their phones:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367355/Bullring-bomb-plot-New-image-Paris-jihadi-s-phone-points-plan-terror-cell-target-Birmingham-shopping-centre.html
Assuming the Bernardino terrorists even used this iPhone for anything related to what they did, there could be text instructions about the shooting, there could be terrorist contacts but authorities should have the call records from the phone company to determine the likelihood of this. Search engines probably have details about any web searches that were done from that device.
They seem to be interested in the 4 hour period between the shooting and when the terrorists were killed because they don't know what happened. The phone would have some location data but it's hard to believe that there are no cameras, eyewitnesses, anything at all besides this one phone that can fill in the details.
Do you really believe what your saying? What are they doing that will prevent a future attack? You also answered your own question. If this issue is significant enough that weakening device security would actually have an effect on Apple's bottom line then it is apparently important to a great many people.
Morality is a complex subject, requiring serious discussion by thoughtful people. In circumstances such as these, emotion is dangerous.
A magistrate's writ is appealable. Pesky legal system.
The Apple ID passcode was changed by the San Bernardino IT people following the fools at the FBI: now the only way in is through the iPhone passcode which is never transmitted to Apple, it stays on the phone. As users of iPhones know there's a ten try and auto-wipe selection. If that's set an FBI brute force password attack and ten failed tries and the phone wipes itself empty.
Apple le has already turned over all the data saved to the phone's iCloud account. This is a fishing trip to see if there's anything else on the phone. Low to zero odds since the terrorists crushed their two personal phones and didn't bother with this work one. Probably leaving it for work expecting the county IT people to have easy access.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life.
Your grief must be unbearable.
It was an unthinkable act done by cowards.
But the answer is still NO."
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Strong Encryption is needed.
NO BACK DOORS.