Posted on 02/23/2016 11:53:44 AM PST by Swordmaker
Computer programming expert John McAfee has said the FBI would have to put a gun to the heads of all Apple programmers to get what they say they want, and that anyone who understands the issue stands with Apple, in an exclusive interview with RT.
“There is no question that what the FBI has asked Apple to do is create a backdoor," McAfee said to RT America’s Ed Schultz. He disputed the bureau’s argument that only one phone used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters would be affected.
Video Interview with John McAfee
A contender for the Libertarian Party’s 2016 presidential nomination, McAfee is best known for creating the leading anti-virus program in 1987 that bears his name. Times have changed since McAfee launched that program, but he says the FBI has not.
“The very FBI,” McAfee charged, “who says, 'we will protect this software and only use it on one phone,' that agency was hacked by a 15-year-old boy just last week, who walked off with all the personnel records including, [of] undercover agents.”
In years past, McAfee explained, backdoors were built into all kinds of products, but there is no going back now that hacking has progressed this far.
"We have extraordinarily sophisticated hackers with extraordinarily sophisticated tools,” McAfee said, elevating the risks some of them pose to the level of threatening national security.
The FBI is “asking every owner of an iPhone to make their phone susceptible to bad hackers and more importantly foreign enemies of the United States like China,” McAfee said.
Under the circumstances, McAfee believes he has an offer that would help both the FBI and Apple without hurting anyone else.
"I have offered to the FBI, for free, to take my team, take that one phone, take it apart, see what's in it, and give it to the FBI,” McAfee said. “That violates no one, it gives them no backdoors, and it cannot be applied to any other iPhone user.”
FBI under court order to release code used to hack 1,000+ computers in child porn sting--RT America (@RT_America)
With that as an unlikely prospect, McAfee acknowledged that Apple CEO Tim Cook is between a rock and a hard place, under a court order that he believes would betray the trust of his customers. Cook’s open letter against the court order impressed McAfee.
"I think Tim Cook has got some serious balls, if I can say that word on TV," McAfee said.
After all, McAfee considered, the FBI can’t do a whole lot about seeing that the court order is followed through in full.
"They're going to have to make his programmers create this backdoor. I don't know how they're going to do that. You say, 'Sit down, do the coding, or we're going to shoot you in the head'? I don't know," McAfee said.
But that wasn’t the worst of it for McAfee.
“What frightens me even more about this is that a federal judge in America is so illiterate in cybersecurity that they would allow this order to go through.”
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And the man is a Lunatic.
Yeah...McAfee...he’s the answer. Bwahahahahaha.
Part of the crime prevention Orwellian gallore. The FBI is going Fast and Furious on free speech,mincapable of stopping China or Hillary, it is going after a non existent phone that was already destroyed by the terrorist... Terrorist the FBI and the DHS let in without vetting, much like they let Obama come to power that way.
I have a Samsung Andriod, AT&T Cell Service & Google email.
Correct me if wrong, everything on my phone is available from AT&T & Google.
McAfee May well be nuts but the Feds want a back door to use any time for any one.
You're wrong (with all due respect)
Anything sent over Gmail might indeed be available from Google. Any calls made to or from the phone should be available from the cell provider. If you have, say a note with information in it and you have not synced it to the cloud, neither Google or your cell provider would have it. Lots of other things would/could be similar.
My Contacts are syn'd, but I see where if they are not, those might only be available on the phone if not used.
If I were trying to hide, I’d use VPN spoofing from off shore servers.
I’m not sure phones are secure enough and have the HP to use VPN.
So I agree, what exactly are they trying to get from the phone that standard cell phone records wouldn’t have.
Pics of his GF?
She was ugly with her clothes on.
I was under the impression that chattle slavery was illegal in the USA and the government can’t really order anyone to do certain work, except in the military context.
The Order is demanding Apple create something new that does not exist.
I am not sure there is a law that gives the FBI that power.
I keep seeing this assertion repeated over and over and over again.
I compile code. If I had the source code for this Apple firmware, I could remove one instruction, recompile, and in 15 minutes I would have created "something new that does not exist."
This is a nothing in the amount of effort required. People keep framing this debate as if Apple must convene a "Manhattan Project" to do this.
No. One coder, 15 minutes. Done.
When did you start to think that governments should conduct requests for proposals via judicial writ?
If the FBI gets the backdoor is requesting, there is no longer a barrier to China, Russia and other countries demanding the same backdoor access.
Is there a point to this question? The guy on the team who wrote that code could find whatever section he wanted in moments. Someone looking at it for the first time might take hours, days or weeks, to figure it out. It depends on how it is structured and how complex it is.
When did you start to think that governments should conduct requests for proposals via judicial writ?
When the company they are trying to deal with leaves them with no other choice.
You said it was one line of code. Guess it is a bit more than one line of code.
When the company they are trying to deal with leaves them with no other choice.
I have to say this is probably the most chilling response I've ever gotten. There are plenty of choices, this isn't a constitutional one. We outlawed slavery.
It is a minor change if you know where the piece of code needing to be changed is located. (Which the designers do.)
Do you seriously expect someone other than an Apple software engineer to know where to find a particular nested loop in a very large program?
If you are going to be unreasonable, why should I take you seriously?
We outlawed slavery.
This isn't slavery. You mock and demean the evil that is slavery by saying 15 minutes of an engineer's time is equivalent to it.
You are arguing like a child.
This administration considers American patriots a greater threat than Muslim terrorists. No backdoor access, ever!
How many Freepers have told you how many dozen times that the code you are referring to is burned into SILICON? It is not designed to be replaced by a mere software update and in fact cannot even be found by any software out side of the Encryption Engine Processor they exist inside. So, DignenesLamp, exactly how do you use a 'software update' to modify a piece of code etched in silicon? We really want to know. You keep ignoring this fact you've been repeatedly told, and had it explained to you how it works, yet WHY do you continue to ignore facts?
This isn't slavery. You mock and demean the evil that is slavery by saying 15 minutes of an engineer's time is equivalent to it.
You are arguing like a child.
You make up delusional "facturds" and require Kingu and everyone to accept your version of reality as if they were true because you proclaim them to be true. It doesn't work that way, DL.
We are not going to accept your claim that it would only take "15 minutes" of some mythical "engineer's time," because YOU created that from a "facturd" you pulled out of your rear end and thought it smelled great when you sniffed it. To us, it smells just like what it is, BS.
Arguing using legitimate logical analogies is arguing like an adult. Claiming stuff you made up is true is arguing like a child.
Scientific illiteracy in the federal judiciary is the rule rather than the exception.
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