DOJ will continue to push Apple to unlock iPhone 5s at center of Brooklyn drug case

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2016
The U.S. Justice Department plans to continue seeking legal action against Apple, in an effort to force the company to create a way to unlock an iPhone that is said to be a crucial part of a drug investigation.




The Brooklyn-based investigation has seemingly become the new case of interest in the ongoing dispute between Apple and the U.S. government, since the FBI found an alternative method to unlock the iPhone 5c at the center of the San Bernardino terrorist shooting. The years-old New York drug case remains ongoing, with the Justice Department hoping a court will compel Apple to help unlock the iPhone at the center of that case.

The government was already rejected once by the court, when New York Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said the government lacks legal authority to force any company to break its own digital security protocols. Undeterred, the government resubmitted its failed motion last month, hoping a higher court would rule in its favor.

In a new court filing issued on Friday, the Justice Department signaled once again that is has no intentions of dropping the case, saying "the government continues to require Apple's assistance in accessing the data that it is authorized to search by warrant." The filing was first discovered by The Wall Street Journal.




The government's appeal is being heard by U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie, and the filing makes it clear that the government does not intend to walk away from the Brooklyn drug case, as it did in the San Bernardino case. The DOJ withdrew its case against Apple in California last week.

In the New York case, the DOJ wishes to bypass the passcode lock of an iPhone owned by suspected drug trafficker Jun Feng. The Justice Department filed an All Writs motion last October, hoping to compel Apple to help break into Feng's iPhone 5s running iOS 7.

Apple has publicly stated that it only complies with orders for data retrieval when it is "satisfied that the court order is valid and appropriate."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Sorry, govt. no backdoors.
    calimagman1979aujjbdragon
  • Reply 2 of 21
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Wow that was fast.
  • Reply 3 of 21
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    I'm assuming that those phone don't have 6+ pins (or alpha ones) cause otherwise Apple can't help them : sorry.

    Even in this case, it would require decapping the enclave and maybe jamming the retry counter (highly likely to destroy the thing) and then using the copy in - copy out solution of the 5c.

    That's likely a million dollar a pop with a high likelihood of failure. If the pin is long/complex, even with that they're off for a decade of trying the pin and copying the memory in and out. They'd probably need to replace the flash/battery a few time while doing that or it would likely fail ;-).
  • Reply 4 of 21
    Most of these government unlock demands will be for the War on Drugs, not terrorism cases.
    latifbpstevehaujnolamacguylostkiwi
  • Reply 5 of 21
    rbonnerrbonner Posts: 635member
    Yep, just this one time is sure panning out.
    baconstangfotoformatmagman1979aujlostkiwi
  • Reply 6 of 21
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Why not government give me contract and I can get true story and confession from any human in no time,.Use direct methods on such criminals. Law enforcement all over the world use it successfully. Only in this country, we spend too much energy and money in the name of "rights" to not able to prosecute them. That is main reason we have too much crime and criminals know they can get engaged in such activity to make fast money, hurt innocent and easily get away. Law enforcement knowingly can't do a shit. So, they have to turn to Apple to force it to do the wrong thing affecting billion user's privacy and safety.
  • Reply 7 of 21
    phone-ui-guyphone-ui-guy Posts: 1,019member
    sog35 said:
    So the govt wants to threaten the privacy and security (financial security, identity security, health information security)  of hundreds of millions of people for drug dealer case? 
    Give me a fricken break.


    A drug dealer that pled guilty already too. They want on his phone to try and figure out where he got the drugs since he won't give up his source. 
    baconstangaujnewtonrjtdknox
  • Reply 8 of 21
    kent909kent909 Posts: 731member
    I feel safer already.
    auj
  • Reply 9 of 21
    hubeeehubeee Posts: 3member
    The Gestapo is alive and well in DC.  And they are declaring their intentions to violate the US Constitution.  I just think it's ironic that these folks who took a public oath to "...defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic..., are trashing it so they can "try" to catch a few more crooks.  If that ain't a fishing expeditions, I don't know what is.  
    aujTuxedoCat1jbdragontdknoxlostkiwi
  • Reply 10 of 21
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    hubeee said:
    The Gestapo is alive and well in DC.  And they are declaring their intentions to violate the US Constitution.  I just think it's ironic that these folks who took a public oath to "...defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic..., are trashing it so they can "try" to catch a few more crooks.  If that ain't a fishing expeditions, I don't know what is.  
    The people in charge are also the biggest enemies to our Constitution.
    aujjbdragontdknox
  • Reply 11 of 21
    stompystompy Posts: 408member
    rbonner said:
    Yep, just this one time is sure panning out.
    I guess they meant once per phone.
    jbdragonlostkiwi
  • Reply 12 of 21
    stevehsteveh Posts: 480member
    stompy said:
    rbonner said:
    Yep, just this one time is sure panning out.
    I guess they meant once per phone.
    Well, once per phone per case, anyway.
  • Reply 13 of 21
    RosynaRosyna Posts: 87member
    foggyhill said:
    I'm assuming that those phone don't have 6+ pins (or alpha ones) cause otherwise Apple can't help them : sorry.

    Even in this case, it would require decapping the enclave and maybe jamming the retry counter (highly likely to destroy the thing) and then using the copy in - copy out solution of the 5c.

    That's likely a million dollar a pop with a high likelihood of failure. If the pin is long/complex, even with that they're off for a decade of trying the pin and copying the memory in and out. They'd probably need to replace the flash/battery a few time while doing that or it would likely fail ;-).
    It's moot. This is a device running iOS 7, which has multiple known and widely exploited vulnerabilities that make it trivial to get access to the passcode (via brute force), assuming the passcode is even needed to get access to the data the DoJ wants.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    aujauj Posts: 2member
    So, let me guess- the FBI doesn't share information with the DOJ.  I am shocked.
    I thought our government supported it's various branches. 
    My my, just like back in the Nixon days.
    No back doors!
    TuxedoCat1
  • Reply 15 of 21
    It's one thing to ask Apple to retrieve data from a phone. It's another thing entirely to ask Apple to create a less secure OS that the government can use anytime, whether they have a warrant or not. I would support the former but not the latter. The government has shown it cannot be trusted to that extent.
    jbdragon
  • Reply 16 of 21
    newtonrjnewtonrj Posts: 25member
    What is amazing to me is the FBI needs APPL to open up their secure iOS hardware, however the FBI is unwilling to open up their findings on target iPhones once unsecured.  How will our FBI/DOJ behave when after breaking down iOS, the public jailbreaks the backdoors enmass to secure what APPL would be prevented from doing today.  -RJ
  • Reply 17 of 21
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    auj said:
    So, let me guess- the FBI doesn't share information with the DOJ.  I am shocked.
    I thought our government supported it's various branches. 
    My my, just like back in the Nixon days.
    No back doors!
    Bad guess.  The FBI is part of the DOJ.
    jbdragonlostkiwi
  • Reply 18 of 21
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Rosyna said:
    foggyhill said:
    I'm assuming that those phone don't have 6+ pins (or alpha ones) cause otherwise Apple can't help them : sorry.

    Even in this case, it would require decapping the enclave and maybe jamming the retry counter (highly likely to destroy the thing) and then using the copy in - copy out solution of the 5c.

    That's likely a million dollar a pop with a high likelihood of failure. If the pin is long/complex, even with that they're off for a decade of trying the pin and copying the memory in and out. They'd probably need to replace the flash/battery a few time while doing that or it would likely fail ;-).
    It's moot. This is a device running iOS 7, which has multiple known and widely exploited vulnerabilities that make it trivial to get access to the passcode (via brute force), assuming the passcode is even needed to get access to the data the DoJ wants.
    Well, why on earth do they need Apple then? Find a local company, they don't even need the Israeli one and get it done.
    Probably can get it for a few thousand dollars (if no hardware hack is involved).
    They're trying money by trying to sue Apple? Doesn't seem to be their real goals is it. Probably trying to get a lot more than this phone (like the FBI).
    edited April 2016
  • Reply 19 of 21
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Going back to a judge that severely bitch slapped them already? Using words like "appalling" to condemn and reject the DoJ position? Fingers crossed. 
    edited April 2016 jbdragon
  • Reply 20 of 21
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    DOJ, another big FU!
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