[ConservativeMind]

Apple needs to hold firm.

There are often vulnerabilities that later allow breaking into an unpatched phone.

[ClearCase_guy]

Attorney General Bill Barr said Monday that Apple failed to provide "substantive assistance" in unlocking two iPhones

Why should they?

Way back when George W Bush was pushing The Patriot Act, some folks thought that was a dangerous thing. A step too far. I admit, I was not one of those people. It seemed to me that maybe we needed the Patriot Act. We wanted to beat the terrorists, didn't we? Well, I was wrong. Clearly, the government got too much power and used that power to spy on citizens.

Bill Barr is a disappointment to me.

[jerod]

The last time this occurred, didn’t they just take the IPhone to some outfit in Israel who decoded it promptly.

[Swordmaker]

This is not a matter of Apple not offering to help, it is that Apple may NOT be able to help. However, if these iPhones are iPhone 5 and iPhone 7 as reported, the FBI most likely already has the ability to unlock the iPhone 5 with one of the devices from Cellebrite or GreyKey which have been on the market since late 2016. The iPhone 7, if it has iOS 13 installed on it may not be unlockable even by Apple without information about the terrorists AppleID and the AppleID password. These devices are protected by 256bit AES encryption which has never been broken without the correct password which only the user knows. This grade of encryption is certified by the NSA no less to be suitable for the protection of US Top Secret and Higher security. The only way to open a 256bit AES encryption without its key is brute force, trying every possible key until you hit the correct one, which is a practical impossibility, and in fact, is a theoretical impossibility. To try, using even the fastest imaginable computer, would take FAR longer than the universe or even the atoms in the universe would exist, and more energy than exists in the Universe to run that unimaginable computer! —PING!

Apple Security PING!

If you want on or off the Apple/Mac/iOS Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Theoria]

"He stressed that investigators found no connection to the shooting among the cadets, but said that some had links to extremist movements or possessed child pornography. Mr. Barr said the cases were too weak to prosecute but that Saudi Arabia kicked the trainees out of the program."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯

'Justice Department officials said that they needed access to Mr. Alshamrani’s phones to see data and messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp to determine whether he had discussed his plans with others at the base and whether he was acting alone or with help.'

[eyeamok]

They NSA is fully capable of disassembling the chip on the phone and reading it directly with an electron microscope.

[Sarcasm Factory]

As I've said before, I've been strongly supportive of most of President Donald J. Trump's policies and actions. This is one of the regrettable exceptions. It's hard to say whether he simply doesn't understand what's at sake or whether he's just being a good populist politician who knows better than to even appear to side with "terrorists, child molesters, and drug traffickers." Frankly, Mr. Trump's behavior in general has been an atomic blast of pure sanity, and I have no intention whatsoever of losing a moment's sleep over an occasional blip of arguably poor judgement.

In any case, the courts appear to be on the ball about protecting the right to privacy against government snooping. Apple's upper management will mouth the usual words about appropriate cooperation while continuing to carefully avoid destroying public trust in the company's products and services. It's the same old dance. Onwards!

Late on Tuesday, President Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter, saying the government was helping Apple on trade issues “yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.”

“They will have to step up to the plate and help our great Country, NOW!” he added.

[minnesota_bound]

Apple supports mass murderers.

[TheBattman]

Of all the Apple haters here on FR - who call them gay, fascist, etc... yet how many other big tech companies have gone to bad for your data privacy as seriously as Apple?