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DoJ Says Apple's Posture on iPhone Unlocking Is Just Marketing (reuters.com)
New submitter kruug writes: The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion seeking to compel Apple Inc to comply with a judge's order for the company to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, portraying the tech giant's refusal as a 'marketing strategy.' The filing escalated a showdown between the Obama administration and Silicon Valley over security and privacy that ignited earlier this week. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeking the tech giant's help to access the shooter's phone, which is encrypted. The company so far has pushed back, and on Thursday won three extra days to respond to the order. Reader Lauren Weinstein writes of this tack: "The level of DOJ disingenuousness in play is simply staggering."
On the one hand, Apple tried to make a deal and keep the whole thing secret. So that makes it seem like Apple was willing to go along (for at least this one case) as long as it was kept quiet.
On the other hand, it doesn't really matter. If Apple is doing it as a publicity stunt, then it's doing it because the customers want it. Frankly that's better than a corporation trying to "do the right thing" that people don't want.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Give me a break. Who would be naive enough to think Apple would refuse to cooperate with the U.S. government in such a case? Yes, they'll "refuse" on public, get some headlines for "standing up for privacy" and then quietly do what they were told one way or another.
FBI and NSA can break the code, but it will not be acceptable as a proof before the court. That is why they ask and request Apple to perform it. In this particular case, they want the data admissible as a proof before the court. They are not trying to break it in order to organize an operation against a secret target or whatever. So, the conditions under which the data will be made accessible and decrypted matter.
Achille Talon
Hop!
We are talking about a iPhone 5c. You should read this for more about the actual reason FBI is asking Apple to perform the decryption of the iPhone.
Achille Talon
Hop!
I suggest that the law enforcement personnel ARE aware of the issue. Even as NYC police had a press conference pointing out how many cases were blocked because of inaccessible information on smartphones, and the commissioner was blasting Apple's current policy, a subsequent speaker (a prosecutor?) was careful to point out that Apple had formerly cooperated in such cases, and that a narrow set of conditions including a properly-executed court order to work on a single phone at a time for a single case is VERY DIFFERENT from a generic backdoor. I'm betting that something along these lines will become the court-ordered compromise: isolated workspace, isolated cases, some kind of open oversight (like normal search warrants and court orders, not the NSA secret rubberstamp court). Practical side: DoJ doesn't want to be blamed for killing the biggest tech company or crashing the stock market.