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Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter To Back Apple With Legal Filing In FBI Case (recode.net)
An anonymous reader writes: Google plans to follow Microsoft in throwing its legal support behind Apple in its increasingly contentious dispute with the federal government around the iPhone connected with the San Bernardino terror attacks, according to sources.
At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Microsoft's legal chief, Brad Smith, said that the company plans to file an amicus brief next week in support of Apple's resistance to helping the FBI hack the phone. Google will deliver its own supporting brief 'soon,' according to sources familiar with the company.
At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Microsoft's legal chief, Brad Smith, said that the company plans to file an amicus brief next week in support of Apple's resistance to helping the FBI hack the phone. Google will deliver its own supporting brief 'soon,' according to sources familiar with the company.
What is being asked to do isn't that complicated - please disable this feature, please reduce this timeout... It shouldn't take 1/2 staff year to produce that firmware (and even if you include full review and validation). It is in Apple's interest to increase this time because this is what they will charge the FBI when they are required to produce the firmware if/when they loose the supreme court hearing. (which by that time, all of the data would be worthless in 2-3 years)
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
The court order asks apple to produce the compromised firmware, load it on the phone and then hand the phone to the fbi. From there the fbi will extract the firmware and use it on any other 5c or compatible they want to crack. And it will leak.
It Apple hacks up the passcode code they can also add code to limit the firmware to this one particular phone. Once digitally signed the FBI and black hats could no more make this work on a different phone than they could have hacked up the passcode code themselves. Apple's digital signature prevents any tampering at all. There need not be any threat to any other 5c.
The real problem is that if one judge in one case can compel Apple to provide such technical assistance then any judge in any case can also do so. The government's claim this is a one-time thing is bogus.
Oh oh looks like the industry is bushing back against the government. Looks like it's time to create another terrorist attack to make the industry look like they are the bad guys. I know what I'm suggesting here is purely conspiracy but I do believe there is more here than what meets the eye.
Have you read what the court order to apple says? Actually says? I have read the actual court order.
It says:
1) It will bypass or disable the auto-erase function.
2) it will enable the FBI to submit passcodes to the subject device for testing electronically via the physical device port, bluetooth, wifi, or other protocol available.
3) it will not purposefully introduce any additional delay between passcodes attempts beyond what is incurred by hardware
4) they are to provide a signed iPhone software file that can be loaded onto the device and run from RAM without modifying the iOS installation on the actual phone, the user data, or system partitions on the device's flash memory
Source: http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/SB-Sho...
So yes...they are required to allow for electronic entry of the passcode. And they have to write the software in a way that hasn't been done before... without touching the flash memory on the iPhone. You can not run iOS on the phone "from RAM".
This is absolutely a new piece of software that they will likely have to start with. Much more complicated than just "removing a few lines of code".
Make no mistake, they are lining up behind Apple on this because if they don't the FBI will come after them next. It could just as easily been an Android phone or a Microsoft phone or a Facebook account that the FBI wants to get its mitts on. And once that door is open it will never close again.
The FBI could have chose to negotiate with Apple about this privately but they chose to take it public. Why? As Rahm Emanuel famously once said "never let a crisis go to waste". The government is once again using the excuse of "terrorism" to take away individual freedoms and rights. This is not just about getting into one iPhone. This is about getting into ALL phones. It always starts like this and little by little our freedoms erode.
Even if the FBI gets past the lock screen all of the data on the phone is encrypted separately. It will be useless to them, assuming there is anything useful on there in the first place. We don't know that. The FBI doesn't know that. Nobody knows that. For all we know there is nothing but Angry Birds on that phone.
But let's just suppose that we give the FBI the benefit of the doubt and let them crack the phone. How is that going to make us any safer against terrorists? It's the same deal with the NSA. Heck, the TSA for that matter. Gigantic waste of fucking time. Maybe if these idiots would spend less time bickering with the CIA I might cut them some slack. But they can't because they are Federal drones, programmed to engage in political infighting, waste, fraud, and general dick-headery.
I used to do consulting work for the Feds. Every place I went was more or less the same. The managers were almost uniformly stone cold morons. Whose bosses were politicians that wouldn't know efficient business practice if it kicked them square in the nuts. I went in hoping to change things for the better. I left vowing never to return no matter how much they offered to pay me. It was a shock something akin to someone that gets their first hospital bill. You know it's going to be bad but you have no idea until you experience it for yourself.