A New York judge just ruled that the FBI can't force Apple to unlock iPhones

Business Insider ^ | 02/29/2016 | Kif Leswing

[Drago]

A federal judge in Brooklyn has ruled that the government can't force Apple to help break an iPhone's passcode security. No, it's not the San Bernardino shooting case, a similar situation where the FBI is seeking to compel Apple to provide custom software to help it access data on a criminal's iPhone...

[Drago]

Also: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/technology/apple-wins-ruling-in-new-york-iphone-hacking-order.html?_r=0

and

http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/29/11135986/new-york-apple-fbi-iphone-encryption-ruling

[MeganC]

Good. I don’t have an Apple phone but I applaud them for standing up to the notion that the government gets to have access to everything “just in case” they want it.

And, of course, they’d NEVER abuse their ability to read everyone’s mail...right?

[cloudmountain]

I would be willing to guessimate that there are hundreds of thousands of young male geeks who could hack that phone in a New York minute.
Hah, they'd probably do it while having breakfast, e-mailing 50 friends, watching boobustoobus and scratching their armpits.

[Drago]

Ping for Grampa Dave.

[DoughtyOne]

[palmer]

Thanks for the links. "The new ruling centers on exactly the same question as the California case — can the All Writs Act compel Apple's help in breaking a locked phone? — and while it's not binding on the California judge, it can still be influentia"

The purpose of a writ is to fill a gap in a framework of laws with a specific court-created order. In the Apple case there is no framework of laws compelling companies to break their products, create back doors, etc. No framework, no hole, no writ. FBI (and their judge) are just blowing smoke.

[dayglored]

Ping!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

[cloudmountain]

I LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG ago discovered that there is NO privacy in this world. And who really cares?

No state secrets from this cloudmountain-dweller. AND, most human conversations are DEADLY dull. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

REAL spies already have a plan...

[RightOnTheBorder]

The feds didn’t just want access, some key that Apple had created, they wanted to force Apple engineers to create a program to crack their own encryption. Basically they wanted to put a gun barrel to the heads of Apple employees and force them to work for the government, not only for free but to their own detriment.

[cloudmountain]

GREAT pic.

[Thibodeaux]

-——they’d NEVER abuse their ability to read everyone’s mail...right?

---

no, they have not. you can’t name one specific incidence because there is no specific incidence. The spying sky, chicken little is not falling

[Drago]

Not really...iPhones are encrypted with AES 256:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1279619

https://www.quora.com/How-secure-are-AES-256-encrypted-files?share=1

https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

[DoughtyOne]

“:^)

[cloudmountain]

Don’t you think that the encryption can be broken?

[The KG9 Kid]

Um, no.

[Thud]

Apple loses if the government is ever serious. The feds can simply seize the company with its eminent domain power, put a trustee in charge (Jack Ma of China would be a great way to rub this into the eyes of the tech guys), and sell Apple to the highest bidder to pay off its former shareholders. While the trustee has Apple’s staff do what the feds want.

This is perfectly legal (it’s my day job) and won’t cost the feds a dime save for their own employees’ time.

The geeks and lefties are perfectly free to migrate to some other galaxy. But, while they live in the great state of reality, no private for-profit entity can openly defy the government in national security matters.

This is Political Power 101.

No company is too big to fail in this way.

All a President has to do is ask Cook, “Are you feeling lucky?”

Sure there will be short-term political consequences. Among those will be that no company will again defy the US government concerning national security.

As for why it would be delicious to make Jack Ma the trustee of Apple in this scenario, see the link below for how Apple has given up a lot more to the Chinese government. Apple is about seven months pregnant.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/02/25/deposing-tim-cook/

Sure the Obama administration will do nothing here. The next President can make Apple an offer it can’t refuse.

[MeganC]

Edward Snowden named SEVERAL specific instances of the US government spying on US citizens inside the US and without a warrant. The FBI also has their “Stingray” program which allows law enforcement to capture and record cell phone conversations and data and the program PROHIBITS law enforcement from getting warrants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

[cloudmountain]

Um, no.

Gee, an unbreakable code. Well, that's amazing. Here I thought that any code COULD be broken...well, unless it was in the Hopi language, written backwards, upside down and in pig latin.
Go figure: the unbreakable code. I guess even DA VINCI couldn't have figured it out. What we have here is The SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD.
Um, gee whiz, um.

[Aliska]

Third parties can already read all my email if they decide to. They probably have code going looking for certain keywords. I don't really care, but I would care if somebody tried to frame me or didn't like my exercising my right to free speech on FR or elsewhere.

Diogenes, would this set a precedent for Apple to use in resisting the FBI? The FBI in CA may have a stronger case because there was Islamic terrorism involved. Other forms of what I consider terrorism can be just as bad or even worse.