DoJ Wants Apple To Decrypt 12 More iPhones (macrumors.com)

Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 23, 2016 @06:23AM from the but-each-one-is-a-one-time-exception dept.

tlhIngan writes: The Wall Street Journal (paywalled) is reporting that the Department of Justice is seeking Apple's help in decrypting 12 other iPhones that may contain crime-related evidence. The cases are not identified, though a list of the 12 phones in question has come out, but it is not known what level of Apple assistance is required (i.e., how many of those cases are waiting on the FBI request for special firmware to be developed and to be used on "one more phone"). It appears Tim Cook's assertion that hundreds of requests are waiting on this software may not be a fabrication, and the goal is not about just one phone, but to set a precedent to unlock more phones. As TechDirt (which also lists those 12 cases, a list which certainly does not encompass all the phones the Feds would like to peer into) puts it, "[O]nce again, Director Comey was flat out lying when he claimed the FBI has no interest in setting a precedent."

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Re:Unlocked firmware by Anonymous Coward · 2016-02-23 07:14 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I think the most dangerous thing is what Tim Cook said: the All Writs Act. When has the gov't forced companies to affirmatively make them something for their investigation? I can't think of an example from the physical-world.
It's the same logic that forces you to buy health insurance now.