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FBI May Be Opening A Security Hole To Federal Agencies (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: In its rush to gather information, the FBI blew its chance to retrieve data from the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists when it ordered his iCloud passcode to be reset shortly after the attacks. Now in its fervor to force Apple to create software that can break its own encryption algorithm, the FBI may be opening a security hole to federal agencies. Over the past four years, the federal government has largely shifted its use of mobile devices from Blackberry to iPhones. One major reason for that is -- you guessed it -- the strong native security. If Apple creates an iPhone skeleton key, it not only threatens the public's privacy, but the security of the federal government as well.

5 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. As if it matters by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given how thoroughly large government organizations keep getting hacked - such as we've recently seen with the OPM and IRS - it's not as if there's any information on government employees' phones which isn't already in the hands of the Chinese, Russians, and various criminal syndicates.

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  2. Re:"skeleton key" by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple hasn't written the software they need to do it. It doesn't exist right now. Once they write it, it's written. Precedent is set and a floodgate of requests will begin and there won't be much Apple can do to make them stop.

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    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  3. Re:The Age of Anti-American American Agencies. by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The founding fathers were just as big a bunch of dicks as the current lot. Often worse.

    The "justice for all" bullshit was because they were pissed at what British Parliament did to the colonies by taxing them. King George III wasn't able to do much more than watch from the side lines. He was pissed at them too.

    The truth is, more than half possibly 3/4 of the founding fathers probably would have hung Tim Cook and beat him until he cried like a girl and screamed "open it, open it".

    I always wondered if those guys were so great and wise and pure and all that shit... why would they write a constitution which more or less would so easily let the country devolve into some religion where we have now existed for decades without a single amendment to improve the document by modernizing it for the times? Where's the review requirement? We treat the document as an absolute as if it is perfect in every way and to question that is borderline treason. Where is the part of the document which would protect civil liberties regarding electronic data protection? It's not there because the founding fathers didn't absolutely require that the constitution is reviewed and updated.

    It was written by a bunch of pissy little bitches and a poet or two. They were all pissy at England and wrote a document to provide freedom from their oppressors for a million people or so and didn't give a shit whether it lasted 200 years in the future and certainly had no clue it would eventually be used to govern 400 million people from every country, race and religion as equals.

    If you want to be true to yourself, with a few exceptions, these guys were mostly soulmates with Donald Trump. They weren't wise, they weren't great, they didn't shoot lightning bolts from their eyes and they didn't shit daffodils when they sat upon the bowl. They were men who :
      a) Wanted to secure power for themselves and their families
      b) Represented a group of truly fucked up people who believed righteousness was the Salem Witch Trials.
      c) Believed black people were less valuable than dogs since you could love a dog.
      d) Believed that religious freedom meant you should be free to believe in any form of Christianity you want.
      e) The one odd ball or two who felt it was a chance to do something wholesome and good.

    Don't place politicians pedestals. They might make impressive art, but they sure as hell are nothing more than people and very rarely are they more than sales people.

  4. Re: "skeleton key" by meerling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They didn't refuse to cooperate, they refused to engage in the process to develop a tool to defeat their own security system.
    It's kind of the difference between giving a mugger your wallet when he demands it, and bringing him to the bank to cosign for his Small Crime Business Loan then babysit his kids for a few hours while he goes and mugs some other people.

  5. Re: "skeleton key" by silentcoder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've always been hugely in favour of jailing CEOs. If the company commits a crime for which *I* would go to jail, then their fucking CEO should be sharing a cell with me.

    How ironic that the first time it may actually happen - it's because of refusing to do something which shouldn't be a crime and is actually GOOD for the public... where was this zealous law enforcement against the fraudulent banksters in 2008 ? Where was this for all the companies that dumped toxic shit in people's drinking water ? Where's this "jail the CEO" desire for the executives at VW ?

    Hell apple has done a lot of shit I think Cook OUGHT to be in jail for - their use of child-labor in unsafe sweatshops is near the top of that list. But the first glimpse that Cook may actually serve time it's a possible contempt charge for a rare occasion of a corporation actually doing the RIGHT thing (for utterly selfish reasons of course).

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