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Arizona County Attorney To Ditch iPhones Over Apple Dispute With FBI (networkworld.com)

Posted by timothy on from the absurdities-keep-piling-up dept.

alphadogg writes: Apple's refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2 has prompted the Maricopa County attorney's office in Arizona to ban providing new iPhones to its staff. 'Apple's refusal to cooperate with a legitimate law enforcement investigation to unlock a phone used by terrorists puts Apple on the side of terrorists instead of on the side of public safety,' Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement Montgomery described as a corporate public relations stunt Apple's positioning of its refusal to cooperate on privacy grounds. On the other hand, I suspect Apple's public refusal to decrypt, and Tim Cook's strong words in favor of user privacy, have probably triggered an opposite reaction among many would-be phone buyers.

6 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. Ok... think about this for a sec... by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A government agency wants to use, factually, LESS secure phones in its office to make a political statement.

    Is the point that government agencies should always use less secure phones so the public can access their salient details? In that case I agree but I don't think that's the point he's trying to make.

  2. you know what could have prevented this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Managing your fucking iPhones! What dipshit organization deploys iPhones that they do not have absolute control over?

    1. Re:you know what could have prevented this? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You would be surprised. The concept of Mobile Device Management is well known within large enterprise, but largely unknown outside of that. And here's why:

      1. Government passes laws that require publicly traded companies to audit and positively manage access control and data safety (Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, etc.) or the companies have institutional requirements for the same or beyond (PCI compliance).
      2. Other companies make products that will allow large enterprises to comply with these rules and regulations, through things like data-at-rest encryption, IPSec, MDM, PKI, etc.
      3. These companies then use these products and services to comply, so they don't get a massive bollocking at the hands of government.
      4. The same laws don't apply to the government, so they don't bother. What's a "best practice"?

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  3. Re:Apple is Grandstanding by Shatrat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If it's the right thing to do, I don't think it matters much why they are doing it. They also aren't putting in back doors for China. The only thing I've read is that they've agreed to let China verify that there are NOT backdoors, which is just the opposite.

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  4. Re:Apple is Grandstanding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    [citation needed]

  5. Re:Government Idiocy by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No good. Google is on Apple's side here. So Android's out. Microsoft sided with the FBI though. So maybe Arizonans can all switch to windows phone. Then again, it seems that Gates is now trying to backpedal and say he was misinterpreted. So maybe no windows phones after all. Perhaps Arizona can step back a decade and bring back Blackberry. They're pretty happy to roll over and put in backdoors for governments to spy on their citizens.

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