Posted on 02/19/2016 4:55:27 AM PST by dayglored
... so Apple doesn't need to place a back door on its product
Using an obscure law, written in 1789 — the All Writs Act — the US government has ordered Apple to place a back door into its iOS software so the FBI can decrypt information on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
It has finally come to this. After years of arguments by virtually every industry specialist that back doors will be a bigger boon to hackers and to our nation's enemies than publishing our nuclear codes and giving the keys to all of our military weapons to the Russians and the Chinese, our government has chosen, once again, not to listen to the minds that have created the glue that holds this world together.
This is a black day and the beginning of the end of the US as a world power. The government has ordered a disarmament of our already ancient cybersecurity and cyberdefense systems, and it is asking us to take a walk into that near horizon where cyberwar is unquestionably waiting, with nothing more than harsh words as a weapon and the hope that our enemies will take pity at our unarmed condition and treat us fairly.
Any student of world history will tell you that this is a dream. Would Hitler have stopped invading Poland if the Polish people had sweetly asked him not to do so? Those who think yes should stand strongly by Hillary Clinton’s side, whose cybersecurity platform includes negotiating with the Chinese so they will no longer launch cyberattacks against us.
...if the government succeeds in getting this back door, it will eventually get a back door into all encryption, and our world, as we know it, is over.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
> If you doubt my credentials, Google "cybersecurity legend" and see whose name is the only name that appears in the first 10 results out of more than a quarter of a million.
No, not my name "dayglored". John McAfee's name...
“and our world, as we know it, is over.”
The hyperbole is strong with this one.
I suppose the case could be made that any
change to anything means the world as we
know it is over. Luddites unite! And,
yeah, I favor unbreakable encryption.
Isn’t he running from the law for a murder charge or something?
Back in the earlier days of computing, McAfee and Norton were the best (and only) ways to go. In more recent decades they have become hit-or-miss bloatware.
McAfee himself is likely clueless on current smart phone encryption methods and is simply looking for headlines.
He killed a really nice guy Named Greg Faul, who was his neighbor in Balise. And the SOB got away with it.
Yup
He's actually a brilliant software guy who does in fact know a ton about security.
But he's also a raving maniac, and a headline seeker.
I figured everybody can use a little more "bizarre" on a Friday morning.
I tried that Google search, and I kept seeing the word “insane”. Is that significant?
I bet I could use a him to come in and set the time on my VCR. Been flashing 12:00... 12:00... 12:00... since 1982...
There is a really good discussion about the FBI request to Apple on Twit.tv with Leo LaPorte, “The Tech Guy” and Steve Gibson from “Security Now” (he joins the discussion in the middle of the show).
It on the Twit.TV show “This Week in Google”. You can watch it by streaming the video, or downloading the video or audio (for free) at this URL.
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google/episodes/340?autostart=false
From the article...
So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.
So, in thinking out-loud here on the issue, why hasn't John already taken his team and decrypted some other random user's same model phone (volunteered for this venture) as his "proof of concept"? He doesn't need the San Bernadino terrorists' phone to prove that he can do it.
and on SlashDot
It would take someone like McAfee to do it. Go John Go!
We need to think long term. If US products have deliberate backdoors, foreign products will become more popular.
Apple itself might relocate to Panama for example. Last I heard, Panama puts a premium on privacy rights. Then we lose out bigtime.
Apple could be sold in the underground economy. And then where will we be?
The FBI should settle this out of court and withdraw their complaint.
Yes, counter-terror needs rapid access. So how can both sides win? Apple could form a branch that checks for itself voluntarily. Could be planned in secret for all I care.
If I were from Apple the only way I would develop this decryption software would be so it would have a self-destruct mechanism in the software so it could only be used once.
I have No trust of the FBI.They have had a very checkered past with violations of people’s rights to privacy all the way to murder.So why should the FBI be trusted with this capability?
“I'll love me forever,
I'll like me for always,
As long as I'm living
A psycho I'll be.”
I have no doubt that there are coders and social engineers out there that can crack encryption, but to think that cyber security world is like some movie plot, points to a fame seeking nut.
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