Trump Says Apple Should Hack San Bernardino Attacker Phone

ABC News ^ | 2/17/2016 | Ryan Struyk

[pgyanke]

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump bashed the tech company Apple today for refusing to help investigators access the iPhone of a San Bernardino attacker.

"I agree 100 percent with the courts," he said on "Fox and Friends" this morning. "In that case, we should open it up."

"To think that Apple won't allow us to get into her cell phone -- who do they think they are?" Trump said. "No, we have to open it up."

[old curmudgeon]

I read an Apple interview where the statement was made that the problem lies with the feature that permanently locks the phone down after 10 failed tries.

I also read a year or two ago that a mainframe can break any alpha/numeric code given a million or so dollars for computer time.

So if Apple can remove the lock and has private access to a mainframe, they could give the info on the phone to the feds in the manner I described.

If the 10 try lock can not be cancelled, then you are correct.

[dearolddad]

Why not have the FBI turn the phone in question over to Apple to open up and give it back to the FBI?

[dfwgator]

Both Cook and the government know that there is nothing Apple can do to decrypt the terrorist's phone, if it's a modern iPhone with encryption.

And if Apple introduced new phones with the backdoor, the current phones will be worth their weight in gold.

[drypowder]

I meant that Apple should decrypt the info

[kabar]

Here is the real reason. Follow the money.

Apple's iPhone market grew 75 percent in China year over year, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on stage today Sept 15, 2015.

The Greater China region is Apple's second-largest market after the Americas. When Apple released the big-screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last September, the company's sales in China really took off. In Apple's Q3 earnings, the company reported $13.2 billion in revenue from greater China, which includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. That was an increase of 112 percent from the same time a year prior.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

That will allow them to "brute force" the password on ANY of their phones by having a computer try any number of passwords until the correct password is found.

A brute-force attack on modern encryption should take too long to be feasible. I think the government demand is probably that Apple build in back-door access through current device security.

[Ransomed]

Well, if Apple or the state did find a way to break it, I would presume that it wouldn’t become public. If someone was ever prosecuted and the evidence against them included stuff from their phone that Apple said was unbreakable by them or anyone else, its seems like it might hurt Apple.

Frregards

[MinuteGal]

The Libertarians must be going nuts over this.

Stossel is undoubtedly writing his next TV script as we type.

Leni

[Defiant]

It's not as simple as giving an encryption code to the Feds, or unlocking something. They would have to develop an entirely new technology that doesn't exist to get into the phone, and even then, it might not work. They might need to use an electron microscope to look at the bits on some of the chips, because the chips self destruct.

I am glad Apple made its phones unhackable, even by them. The end result of that is that people who we don't like can hide things from us, so that we can have some element of freedom from government intrusion. It's like asking them to recover the writing on a piece of paper after it was thrown on a fire, because Apple sold the paper. And then demanding that they sell only fireproof paper hereafter.

[Washi]

A brute-force attack on modern encryption should take too long to be feasible. I think the government demand is probably that Apple build in back-door access through current device security.

What I've read is that the FBI wants to disable the feature that wipes the data after 10 incorrect password guesses. I know that it takes a lot of processor power and that there are a zillion different permutations in modern encryption, but that suggests to me a either a brute force or dictionary attack on the password.

[PUGACHEV]

",i>I don't know about you but I think Apple is a private company not subject to court dictat. Trump is revealing his inner fascist here..."

So the bank, being a private company, is not obliged to answer a Federal subpoena for my account information, or for entry into my safe deposit box?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

What I've read is that the FBI wants to disable the feature that wipes the data after 10 incorrect password guesses. I know that it takes a lot of processor power and that there are a zillion different permutations in modern encryption, but that suggests to me a either a brute force or dictionary attack on the password.

That's interesting. It's true that most users will not bother to come up with a random set of characters for their password and then memorize them, they'll probably use some familiar string or a set of numbers from an old phone number, etc. An attack by the government based on a relatively small set (maybe a few thousand) of numbers or strings which come from a user's personal information does make sense in terms of getting rid of the 10-try limit.

[cornfedcowboy]

Apple runs the risk of destroying their own empire. If Apple gives the govt. the info on the phone it would encourage Apples competitors to advertise “We will never give your info to the govt.” I bet the iphone sales would drop 10-30%.

[cornfedcowboy]

Apparently your trust in govt. is much higher than mine.

[kabar]

As long as the FBI didn't use directly the evidence from the phone to prosecute the case, it could be kept secret. Who knows where the information will lead? It could identify the terrorist' contacts in foreign countries.

What if, for the sake of argument, some information was discovered on September 10th, 2001 that could have disclosed the 9/11 attack plans? Would Apple's cooperation or non-cooperation be an issue? Of course it would.

My point is that in the past, the government and the corporation could arrive in private at an acceptable solution given what is at stake. Now it appears to me that corporate profits trump national security. Apple is an international company that can be located anywhere in the world with no real allegiance to this country despite being American owned.

Some time ago Ralph Nader did this:

n 1996 and in 2013, I wrote to the CEOs of more than 100 large chartered corporations to ask a simple question: "Would the CEO stand up at the annual shareholders meeting and, in the name of the corporation (not the Board of Directors), pledge allegiance to the United States and the Republic for which it stands … with liberty and justice for all?" Of the dozens of responses, only one company — Federated Department Stores — thought it was a good idea.

"These corporations rose to their enormous size on the backs of American workers. Their success can be attributed to taxpayer-subsidized research and development handouts. Not to mention those corporations that rushed to Washington D.C. for huge bailouts from the taxpayers when mismanagement or corruption got them into serious trouble.

How do these companies show their gratitude to their home country? Many of them send jobs overseas to dictatorial regimes and oligarchic societies who abuse their impoverished workers -- all in the name of greater profits. Meanwhile, back home, corporate lobbyists continue to press for more privileges and immunities so as to be less accountable under U.S. law for corporate crimes and other misbehaviors."

[doug from upland]

[kabar]

As described by the FBI in court filings, data on iPhones is encrypted. The 4-digit code you enter into your phone initiates a complex calculation which generates a unique key to unlock the data on the phone. No key, no data. The auto erase function, if triggered, will wipe out all the encryption keys rendering the data on the iPhone useless.

The iPhone has another feature to frustrate automated attempts to unlock a phone. A 4-digit code would produce 9,999 unique possibilities. Not a particularly big challenge by itself, but the code must be punched in manually. This would be time consuming enough, but after five failed attempts, the iPhone will require the the user to wait one minute before another attempt. After attempt six the wait is five minutes. Attempt seven and eight, 15 minutes and an hour after the ninth try. More time can be added in the software.

Due to the auto-erase feature, the FBI can't attempt to unlock the iPhone without risking losing all the data. The FBI wants Apple to alter the operating system just on Farook's phone to allow the FBI to bypass or disable the auto-erase function. It also wants Apple to alter the software to allow the test pass codes to be entered without punching the keys by using Bluetooth or other means to speed the process. And the FBI wants Apple to change the operating system to eliminate the delays caused by multiple attempts to unlock the phone.

Why can't the FBI change the operating system codes? Apple has designed its phones so that only Apple software with a special cryptographic signature can run on it. No other software will work.

[cornfedcowboy]

I am curious to know what the feds think they are going to find out. They already have all the metadata and communications.(assuming)

[dfwgator]

Why would it even have to be disclosed publicly? This could have been done without any public knowledge. I do find it interesting that this battle is being fought out publicly. Maybe it is a smokescreen to protect Apple and to give the terrorists a false sense of security when using I-phones. Regardless, there is no such thing as any code being unbreakable.

I suspect this whole thing is to make us beg for them to put their chains on us.

[Ransomed]

I don’t know. Seems like unbreakable encryption on phones is something humans should be able to have. But I reckon I can see that there’s room enough for folks to disagree.

I still kind of wonder if the state really couldn’t break it if they didn’t get any help from Apple. It could be cover for Apple I guess, but man they would take a hit if it ever became public, and why would the state care so much if it actually could do it without Apple?

Freegards