This is pure politics and has absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement despite the oft-quoted boogyman scenarios that are used like kryptonite to distort common sense. There's an ongoing struggle between bureaucratic conservatism and late stage capitalism to see who dominates the mindshare of the masses. Barr and his handlers want to bring companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google in-line and make sure they are obedient to the will of the government bureaucrats and political leaders. In their mind you, as a company, are either with them - which means helping further their political and social objectives, like Facebook and Microsoft do, or you're against them - which means focusing on your company's priorities and your customers. They like the contributions Apple, Amazon, and Google bring to the economy, but they want you to love them and trust them more than you love and trust Apple, Amazon, and Google.
If hacking tools can be stolen from the NSA -- The NSA!!! -- How can we be ever sure that a backdoor to all iPhones will never fall into bad actors' hands?
The reason Barr (Trump, et al) and other corrupt officials are putting pressure on Apple when in fact they already have the tools they need to get what they are looking for from this shooter's iPhone is because they are not really asking for that, despite the way they phrase it.
They are looking for a universal way to break into all iPhones at will. They do not want to have to work at this or buy expensive tools to do it, they want on-demand access to all iPhones for any reason (or no reason) they can come up with. Does that sound like a lawful democracy to you?
Incidentally for you Android users -- you'll note that to date no law enforcement official has publicly put pressure on Google/Samsung/et al to help crack into users' data ... gee I wonder why?
I think it is quite obvious that no matter how it is stressed not to use mobile devices that are not secured by means of government encryption for top secret communications it will be done by either accident or stupidity necessitates the need for Apple’s form of security. If we make that back door available now you open up flood gates of confidential information that is trafficked already by people that should know better.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
Yes they did. This is from Apple's statement on the matter: "We reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing. We responded to each request promptly, often within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that we had."
Obviously to give the FBI that much data they would have turned over the phone's entire iCloud backup. Not anything more they can do than that is there, at least as things currently stand?
I do not trust Barr. That is not a political comment- a simple observation of facts.
He spiked the Iran-Contra prosecutions in the waning days of Bush 1 and meddled in the Mueller Investigation under Trump. He is a proponent of the Unitary Executive concept and thinks rules are for other people. I see people who think this way as a danger to our democracy and republic. In a technical way, they are a danger to the security of your devices and your expectation of privacy.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
I think your comment/position falls under the category of trading liberty for a false sense of security.
Letting the FBI trample your civil liberties will not make you safer or increase the likelihood they will ever be brought to justice. Backdoors will become exploits by nefarious individuals, organizations or rogue agents within the government. SW changes to allow backdoors could also likely be exploited to PLANT things on your devices that could be “discovered” by law enforcement and used against you.
This is pure politics and has absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement despite the oft-quoted boogyman scenarios that are used like kryptonite to distort common sense. There's an ongoing struggle between bureaucratic conservatism and late stage capitalism to see who dominates the mindshare of the masses. Barr and his handlers want to bring companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google in-line and make sure they are obedient to the will of the government bureaucrats and political leaders. In their mind you, as a company, are either with them - which means helping further their political and social objectives, like Facebook and Microsoft do, or you're against them - which means focusing on your company's priorities and your customers. They like the contributions Apple, Amazon, and Google bring to the economy, but they want you to love them and trust them more than you love and trust Apple, Amazon, and Google.
Your statement is right on target.
Our Politician and Government does not want people thinking any person or company is above their control. Microsoft learned the hard way when they tried to avoid talking to congress about internet explorer we now have google because of MS failure to understand this. If Politicians can bash or destroy a company or industry to ensure they keep their jobs they will do it without hesitation. I took a MBA class on Technology and Public Policy and the entire class was about this subject and the person who taught the class work for the NIST/DARPA for a long time and it was his job to enforce the politicians policies over tech companies.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
It's good to remember that law enforcement varies. There's law enforcement in China, there's law enforcement in Russia, there's law enforcement in Syria, and so on. I think we can assume that once the precedent is set, other nations will expect the same treatment. They have "terrorists", too.
I wonder why they don't use this as a defense
Hello, Mr Trump? Do you want China to get into all iPhones? The only way to prevent this is to shut all backdoors as soon as they're found.
Or is Apple now an extension of the NSA??
Nothing wrong with having a private device, Apple needs to keep vigilant.
I don't like that iCloud is not encrypted either. That seems to be a massive flaw in the security system.
the way I understand the situation (and could very well be wrong) is that it's actually illegal for a company to offer encrypted email. similar to why the US government is the only outfit allowed to send snail mail. Obviously one can get around this (sort-of) by creating their own encrypted email server, (or sending a letter through a parcel service) but said individual can't offer it for public use. AFAIK no public email service is encrypted and probably why iCloud as a whole is not an encrypted service. if the US government could be the only way to send/recieve email they would, but the private sector got out from under them on that one.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
It's good to remember that law enforcement varies. There's law enforcement in China, there's law enforcement in Russia, there's law enforcement in Syria, and so on. I think we can assume that once the precedent is set, other nations will expect the same treatment. They have "terrorists", too.
I wonder why they don't use this as a defense
Hello, Mr Trump? Do you want China to get into all iPhones? The only way to prevent this is to shut all backdoors as soon as they're found.
Or is Apple now an extension of the NSA??
Nothing wrong with having a private device, Apple needs to keep vigilant.
I don't like that iCloud is not encrypted either. That seems to be a massive flaw in the security system.
the way I understand the situation (and could very well be wrong) is that it's actually illegal for a company to offer encrypted email. similar to why the US government is the only outfit allowed to send snail mail. Obviously one can get around this (sort-of) by creating their own encrypted email server, but said individual can't offer it for public use. AFAIK no public email service is encrypted and probably why iCloud as a whole is not an encrypted service. if the US government could be the only way to send/recieve email they would, but the private sector got out from under them on that one.
People should always have a ProtonMail account just in case.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
It's good to remember that law enforcement varies. There's law enforcement in China, there's law enforcement in Russia, there's law enforcement in Syria, and so on. I think we can assume that once the precedent is set, other nations will expect the same treatment. They have "terrorists", too.
I wonder why they don't use this as a defense
Hello, Mr Trump? Do you want China to get into all iPhones? The only way to prevent this is to shut all backdoors as soon as they're found.
Or is Apple now an extension of the NSA??
Nothing wrong with having a private device, Apple needs to keep vigilant.
I don't like that iCloud is not encrypted either. That seems to be a massive flaw in the security system.
the way I understand the situation (and could very well be wrong) is that it's actually illegal for a company to offer encrypted email. similar to why the US government is the only outfit allowed to send snail mail. Obviously one can get around this (sort-of) by creating their own encrypted email server, but said individual can't offer it for public use. AFAIK no public email service is encrypted and probably why iCloud as a whole is not an encrypted service. if the US government could be the only way to send/recieve email they would, but the private sector got out from under them on that one.
People should always have a ProtonMail account just in case.
ah, I'd forgotten about them. might actually sign up for an acct.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
It's good to remember that law enforcement varies. There's law enforcement in China, there's law enforcement in Russia, there's law enforcement in Syria, and so on. I think we can assume that once the precedent is set, other nations will expect the same treatment. They have "terrorists", too.
I wonder why they don't use this as a defense
Hello, Mr Trump? Do you want China to get into all iPhones? The only way to prevent this is to shut all backdoors as soon as they're found.
Or is Apple now an extension of the NSA??
Nothing wrong with having a private device, Apple needs to keep vigilant.
I don't like that iCloud is not encrypted either. That seems to be a massive flaw in the security system.
the way I understand the situation (and could very well be wrong) is that it's actually illegal for a company to offer encrypted email. similar to why the US government is the only outfit allowed to send snail mail. Obviously one can get around this (sort-of) by creating their own encrypted email server, (or sending a letter through a parcel service) but said individual can't offer it for public use. AFAIK no public email service is encrypted and probably why iCloud as a whole is not an encrypted service. if the US government could be the only way to send/recieve email they would, but the private sector got out from under them on that one.
Actually, it is just SMTP was never designed with encryption in mind and attempts to bolt it on after the fact has created scary monsters that don’t really work well.
Getting good encryption on top of email would require a retrofit of every server simultaneously world wide. what you would end up with is WhatsApp or iMessage.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement
It really depends on the nature of "working with". Granting access to data that is already available in servers, after being presented with a legal warrant? Sure.
Modifying your flagship product's system software so agencies (and the rest of the world) can have easy access? No.
When companies like Apple and Google talk about privacy, they mean they won't give/sell your data to third parties without first aggregating/anonymizing it. None of them say or imply that their servers won't read the data for internal use, whether that is deduplicating files, flagging potentially illegal content, flagging potential copyright violations or targeting advertising.
If you don't want a cloud provider's system software to read the content of your files, then you shouldn't be uploading your files in the first place. Keep them local and make your own backups. It's not like hard drives cost that much.
I'm in the minority but I don't see an issue with tech companies working with law enforcement. Guardrails need to be in place and enforced like everything else but if there are situations where unlocking the phones means putting a serial pedophile in jail or preventing more people from being killed then tech companies should be willing partner with law enforcement. By forcing law enforcement to 3rd parties you're only increasing the likelihood of abusing the ability to access locked devices.
Good news. Tech companies do work with law enforcement. The FBI had the contents of the shooter's iCloud account less than 24 hours after the incident.
It's good to remember that law enforcement varies. There's law enforcement in China, there's law enforcement in Russia, there's law enforcement in Syria, and so on. I think we can assume that once the precedent is set, other nations will expect the same treatment. They have "terrorists", too.
I wonder why they don't use this as a defense
Hello, Mr Trump? Do you want China to get into all iPhones? The only way to prevent this is to shut all backdoors as soon as they're found.
Or is Apple now an extension of the NSA??
Nothing wrong with having a private device, Apple needs to keep vigilant.
I don't like that iCloud is not encrypted either. That seems to be a massive flaw in the security system.
iCloud actually is encrypted, it's just that Apple retains the key(s) required to decrypt the contents at will. The encryption on the devices you own is set up so that Apple never gets the required keys.
Comments
They are looking for a universal way to break into all iPhones at will. They do not want to have to work at this or buy expensive tools to do it, they want on-demand access to all iPhones for any reason (or no reason) they can come up with. Does that sound like a lawful democracy to you?
Incidentally for you Android users -- you'll note that to date no law enforcement official has publicly put pressure on Google/Samsung/et al to help crack into users' data ... gee I wonder why?
"We reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation. Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing. We responded to each request promptly, often within hours, sharing information with FBI offices in Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York. The queries resulted in many gigabytes of information that we turned over to investigators. In every instance, we responded with all of the information that we had."
Obviously to give the FBI that much data they would have turned over the phone's entire iCloud backup. Not anything more they can do than that is there, at least as things currently stand?
He spiked the Iran-Contra prosecutions in the waning days of Bush 1 and meddled in the Mueller Investigation under Trump. He is a proponent of the Unitary Executive concept and thinks rules are for other people. I see people who think this way as a danger to our democracy and republic. In a technical way, they are a danger to the security of your devices and your expectation of privacy.
I think your comment/position falls under the category of trading liberty for a false sense of security.
Letting the FBI trample your civil liberties will not make you safer or increase the likelihood they will ever be brought to justice. Backdoors will become exploits by nefarious individuals, organizations or rogue agents within the government. SW changes to allow backdoors could also likely be exploited to PLANT things on your devices that could be “discovered” by law enforcement and used against you.
Pandora’s box.
Our Politician and Government does not want people thinking any person or company is above their control. Microsoft learned the hard way when they tried to avoid talking to congress about internet explorer we now have google because of MS failure to understand this. If Politicians can bash or destroy a company or industry to ensure they keep their jobs they will do it without hesitation. I took a MBA class on Technology and Public Policy and the entire class was about this subject and the person who taught the class work for the NIST/DARPA for a long time and it was his job to enforce the politicians policies over tech companies.
ah, I'd forgotten about them. might actually sign up for an acct.
Getting good encryption on top of email would require a retrofit of every server simultaneously world wide. what you would end up with is WhatsApp or iMessage.