Posted on 03/31/2016 10:20:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The FBI agreed Wednesday to help an Arkansas prosecutor unlock an iPhone and iPod belonging to two teenagers accused of killing a couple, just days after the federal agency announced it had gained access to an iPhone linked to the gunman in a mass shooting in California.
Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said the FBI agreed to the request from his office and the Conway Police Department Wednesday afternoon. A judge on Tuesday agreed to postpone the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler so prosecutors could ask the FBI for help. Drexler's trial was moved from next week to June 27.
Drexler and 15-year-old Justin Staton are accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell at their home in Conway, 30 miles north of Little Rock, in July. The Cogdells had raised Staton as their grandson.
The FBI announced Monday that it had gained access to an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in San Bernardino in December. The FBI hasn't revealed how it cracked Farook's iPhone. Authorities also haven't said whether the iPhone and iPod in the Arkansas case are the same models or whether the FBI will use the same method to try to get into the devices.
Hiland said he could not discuss details of the murder case in Arkansas, but confirmed the FBI had agreed less than a day after the initial request
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No, the Feds should have limits of reach; however, Apple played their hand wrong.
It's poetic justice that Apple has effectively created the very thing about which they were having their screaming fit.
The FBI can now essentially "back door" every phone (of that model) they chose, and Apple can't do a F***ing thing about it.
Good Job Apple! Your Homosexual leader didn't see that one coming i'll bet!
It isn't "tyranny" when the government gets a search warrant. That is called "rule of law", and we need it.
This is still FR, right?
Hard to tell anymore with all the paranoid chicken little's running around nowadays. I should add "Gullible" Chicken Littles, because anyone who bothered to read what the FBI was asking for would have realized Apple simply started a great big ole lie-fest.
Apple lied about everything. It's really funny to me that Apple, by their deliberate lying, CAUSED the very thing they claimed to be afraid of.
They were "hoist by their own petard."
Not in the least. With warrants, the FBI has always had the right to use a method of their own to enter a phone. But they never had a right to force Apple to hack it open for them.
If they have a right to search your safe, they can bring saws, blowtorches, and Vinnie the safecracker. They cannot force the Liberty safe corporation to come open it for them.
And it was smart of apple. New York alone has 160 phones it wants into. Had apple done one, it would soon be flooded with thousands of phone that Law Enforcement wants open. Apple would likely need a unit of dozens of people doing nothing but opening phones for cops, forever.
The FBI now get s this joy.
I hope apple is working hard to make it even harder on them to get in.
Trusting this administration to do the right thing is like trusting Rosie O’Donnell to guard the Twinkies....
Feel free to browse my VERY PUBLIC and VERY LOUD support for Microsoft on FR and elsewhere. I’m a Microsoft certified engineer and have been working on Windows platforms for 20 years. I am NOT an Apple fanboi, but I am also an IT security professional; and this entire thing was a BAD IDEA.
If you have no understanding of cryptography or digital encryption, I suggest you do some research. There are no security experts anywhere in the world who thought the bullying of Apple was good for business.
“What?
No Swordmaker comment yet?
All hail the Mothership of Apple©!! d;^)”
Please trust me when I say I cannot stand Apple and some of the articles Swordmaker posts make me want to projectile vomit :-). I’m an Android fanboy (though I am growing completely sick and tired of Google too).
I suspect the FBI’s way of accessing these phones isn’t something someone can do via software. I think they need to take possession of the phone before they can decrypt it. It has to involve some kind of hardware hack. I don’t think iPhone users need to worry about some random exploit that anyone can use.
I saw someone mention that they might be using the fingerprint reader as a way in, but I don’t think the FBI would have overlooked something like that. There wouldn’t have been a need to call in 3rd party consultants to provide that information :-).
My guess is that they identified where the decryption key resides on the die of the CPU ... they can figure out the zeros and ones they need using a focused ion beam setup that’s used for integrated circuit debugging and decrypt storage that way.
I used a focused ion beam machine about 15 years ago to debug an integrated circuit my company was working on. They are frigging neat to say the least (and NOT cheap). While the silicon process we were using was only two metal layers, I saw someone probing a 4 metal layer design and you could easily see straight down to the substrate. You can even see transistors/metal interconnect toggling by watching the metal kind of “pulse” (i.e. there is a glow around the metal when there is no charge, and a lack of glow w. some charge). There was also a means of probing a net to measure a voltage as well as a means to cut metal and deposit it to rework the IC.
This was over 15 years ago ... I’m sure the technology has become jaw dropping since then.
At any rate, identifying a decryption key wouldn’t be too difficult if you know where to look on the die. Depending on the “glow” around the net, you could determine the 1 or 0s. You also need to determine the order ... some snooping around and reverse engineering will let you know that order in relatively little time.
Horrifying. Look at all the concern shed over AAPL stock. Too bad they couldn’t be protected more, poor things.
“Prosecutors said recorded phone conversations between Staton and others since his arrest indicated he had used the iPod to communicate about the homicide plans and that there may be other evidence on the device.”
I won’t shed any tears for them if they hang because a legally discharged and Constitutionally protected noose went around their pencil necks. No, I’m liking this. They should have planned it all out with lemon juice on paper. No one carries matches anymore.
.
Usage of the word "Backdoor" is a deliberate lie created by Apple. Do not use the word "Backdoor." You are simply abetting a lie.
The FBI did not ask for a "back door." The FBI did not ask for any sort of door. The FBI agreed to let Apple inc keep the phone and to keep the software used to unlock the phone, and only Apple inc would have control of it.
Apple started a LYING SCREAM FEST and ginned up all their cultish followers to help spread the lie. They have been so successful at spreading the lie that even people who should know better are now repeating it.
Strong arming a company into giving up its keys is tantamount to extortion.
Another example of how Apple's LIE was so successful. Nobody was asking for keys. Apple would keep all keys, but Apple did everything they could to make certain that nobody understood this, because if people understood that Apple would retain complete custody of everything, they wouldn't have been able to gin up the fake outrage.
” If those folks that were murdered and got off because we couldn’t exercise a legally executed warrant,”
The feds that were so desperate to get into the IPhone, just to protect us, are also the same ones who let the terrorists in but refused to look at her facebook page “out of respect for her privacy”. Their words, not mine. They also scrubbed their anti-terror training materials of anything that gave the merest hint that Islam is the root of nearly all terrorist threats. They arm cartels to undermine the 2nd amendment. They have muslim brotherhood people in DHS and as national security advisors. The St Louis fusion center has designated lovers of the constitution, veterans, Paul voters, Gadsden flag displayers, as terrorists.
But they really want into Iphones to keep you safe.
They forced phone companies to tap phones when phones first became commonplace.
They even forced phone companies to create the equipment necessary to tap phones.
Apple would likely need a unit of dozens of people doing nothing but opening phones for cops, forever.
If they are making money on the deal, what the problem?
Why do you need to understand cryptography when the algorithm needing to be changed was the one that counted to ten?
Are you suggesting that they used an encryption algorithm to count to 10? Seems a rather silly way of doing it if you ask me.
They never did. All of that was Apple FearMongering just to get their own way.
The FBI let the Muslims into the country? And here I thought that was the "State" Department, rather than the "Justice" Department.
No, I think a different group of Feds let them in, and tasked another group of Feds to deal with it.
“The St Louis fusion center has designated lovers of the constitution, veterans, Paul voters, Gadsden flag displayers, as terrorists.”
Get them together and rewrite the 4th Amendment.
I celebrate the 4th, so I guess I am on the hit list. It’s OUR Constitution, after all. Get them out there to go after the lovers of the constitution. That would be ironic, eh?
“It’s really funny to me that Apple, by their deliberate lying, CAUSED the very thing they claimed to be afraid of.”
What happened was envitable: endless cracking of phones with our without Apple. Apple caused nothing.
A silver lining is that teen sexting will be discouraged.
(Those of us who aren't Apple fan's get it, btw .....)
“I suspect the FBI’s way of accessing these phones isn’t something someone can do via software. I think they need to take possession of the phone before they can decrypt it.”
And bear in mind, this was on a 5c phone. Not on the latest version with the 6 digit code and much tougher encryption. The simpleton likely had a very easy code to guess.
A tough password, on the latest system would have probably put it out of reach for millions of years. Actually more that that by far. But let the fads spike the publicity ball and pretend they won.
This was actually a big win for apple, and this was the governments face saving measure.
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