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San Bernadino D.A. Says Shooter's Phone Could Harbor "Cyber Pathogen" (theguardian.com)
Mr.Intel writes with the Guardian's report that : San Bernadino D.A. has a novel argument for why Apple should be forced to provide the FBI with tools to decrypt the iPhone once used by mass-shooter Syed Rizwan Farook: a "dormant cyber pathogen," he says, could have been unleashed by the county's electronic infrastructure, and only by examining the phone's content can any really be sure. From the article: The questionable claim comes from Ramos's amicus brief in the case, filed with the US District Court on Thursday afternoon. In it, Ramos supports the FBI's argument that Apple should be compelled to build a one-use version of its operating system to load on to the seized phone – used by the mass-murderer, but still technically property of his employer, San Bernardino county – in order to weaken the security and allow the Government to brute-force the shooter's passcode. ... Ramos said: 'The iPhone is a county owned telephone that may have connected to the San Bernardino County computer network. The seized iPhone may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino County's infrastructure and poses a continuing threat to the citizens of San Bernardino County'.
I don't have a link handy, but I saw something in the news yesterday or today saying there was no good reason to think this is true.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
San Bernardino D.A. admitted he made the whole thing up.
Perhaps the phone contains unicorns farting rainbows. I am sure that looking for unicorns would be good reason to crack the phone.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Bull hockey... And don't forget the children!
Link to Ars Technica version of original story, which was updated to say that it is a non-issue: http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
Link to Ars Technica story on the fact that the first story was false: http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
They will be apparently able to make up any number of plausible excuses for what possibly happened, and you'll walk away scot free.
The ONLY CURE for a "lying dormant cyber pathogen" is for the phone to be boiled in holy water.
Next filing Ramos will argue there might be a cyber demon hiding there just like the one on Buffy, ready to eat the souls of all Americans except the atheists.
That's the real reason Christie Dropped out. Well, at least this seems nearly as plausible as the DA's claim.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The seized iPhone may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino County's infrastructure and poses a continuing threat to the citizens of San Bernardino County.
Look, we know they had guns. That's just the part we know about.
What we *don't* know is whether these nefarious masterminds also had a cyber malworm with nuclearized darkweb spearphishing viruses that could use long-blockchain cloud replication vectors to infect all the computers in San Bernadino AND THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THEM!!
Only by decrypting the phone can we be 100% sure it doesn't contain such a doomsday "cyber pathogen."
Nothing posted to
If you assert the existence of a "cyber-pathogen," there's no reason to stop at one phone... why not decrypt and search every phone? Only way to be sure...
But it doesn't seem likely to be a large one, based on his reasoning.
And if they should make what would otherwise appear to be a successful decryption attempt and they do not find anything along the lines of what they are looking for, they will forever remain uncertain whether their decryption attempt did not inadvertently erase part of the phone's contents or if this whole thing was just a wild goose chase.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Ramos: howto holywater?
Priest: boil the hell out of it.
It seems reasonable to me that San Bernardino county could ask Apple, politely, to please break the encryption. No warrant, no lawsuit, no precedent. Just a customer request.
believe that the public is infinitely stupid!
It could have anything.
Let's unlock it because it "could have":
1/ The secret to unlimited green energy
2/ A list of the sporting records for the next century
3/ A picture of a cat in a box
4/ The entire global drug supply network's name and addresses
5/ The location of the largest weapons grade plutonium deposit in the universe
6/ The source code for Windows 22
7/ Nothing at all interesting
FFS: make a decent case as to what it probably has.
This summary contains buzzword pathogens that eat brain cells
This is their idea of a clever argument.
The phone should be decrypted and the results made known to the courts.
If nothing useful is found, the bar should be significantly raise for future mandated decryptions.
If something useful is found, the bar should remain the same.
We shouldn't have court orders without a feedback loop in place.
Why would Mr. Intel have such confidential information? Was he part of the plot? Doesn't it sound suspicious that he would have such insider information. Perhaps Mr. Intel was conducting research himself.
Maybe his brain contains a genetically engineer super-virus.
Considering the seriousness of these possibilities, the only way to know is to dissect Mr. Intel.
Yup. Terrorists kill people. Drug dealers kill people or deal drugs which kill people. Pedophiles abuse children.
And you know what, the authorities and governments fucking LOVE to use those guys to create or abuse laws in order to give themselves new and expanded powers. We already know that there's not just one phone, but at least 17 other cases where they're asking for pretty much the same fucking thing (and none of those terrorists). All they need is a nice precedent and a year from now they'll be using it break open the phones of everyone charged slightly above littering or jaywalking. It'll also be very helpful when they seize mobile devices at those ever-growing "borders" from pesky reporters or political types.
The authorities have already said they don't really know that there's anything useful on the phone (but we have to do everything, just in case). Given the wiretaps and other B.S. they've already been pulling, it's probably also a safe bet that most of it (if not all) they have already. But evidence gathered through illegal clandestine means can't be used in court, so you've gotta set a precedent for a nice new "legal" method.
Sorry, but I applaud Apple for taking a strong stance on this, unlike the fuckers at Amazon who decided the best way to deal with the issue is to preemptively remove device-encryption with their latest (mandatory) update.
Cyber pathogen.
Seriously? they trying to fool the old people?
the d.a. is a bacon loving terrorist who love to suck donkey dick in his spare time.
Maybe the phone entraps a balrog that will get free and kill us all if the phone is unlocked.
Or two balrogs. Best let sleeping dogs lie.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Colin Powell will be warning the UN General Assembly about it later this week, and plans to show them a vial of deadly cyber pathogen to prove it!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It seems reasonable to me that San Bernardino county could ask Apple, politely, to please break the encryption. No warrant, no lawsuit, no precedent. Just a customer request.
Because if it's a polite request from a customer, large number theory and computability theory don't apply any more?
Can we get an H-1B in here to do STEM stuff for this guy?
If the iPhone holds a "Cyber Pathogen" then it must be destroyed, because the second that iPhone is unlocked by an Apple intervention the cyber pathogen could spread through the whole United States and infect everything from your pocket calculator to your android smartphone.
It is a threat that must be destroyed, incinerate that phone right now
(Because I'm just fed up with the whole order to encrypt and denying battle of Apple, that we should all know is a big charrade by Apple, because if it had been requested silently they'd done it.)
Just get it over with!
That phone could also contain:
- The solution to a number of longstanding open mathematical problems
- The answer to the ultimate question about Life, Universe and Everything
- Proof to put Snowden and friends in jail forever
- The undeniable identity of JFK murderer
- A tiny piece of code that could make windows much faster than Linux
We do all need to unlock that phone, definitely!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Only "by examining the phone's content" can we "really be sure" that ET doesn't have a home phone, that Reagan doesn't remember having Alzheimer's disease, or that the grinch stole Christmas.
The opportunity for journalists to trash future presentations by the people involved in these cases is getting enormous. The FBI director claimed it wouldn't set a precedent, but has now retracted. Sadly journalists, despite their reputation for addressing issues with 'no fear or favour', in practice realise that if they demolish the person they are challenging, there WILL be consequences for their employer. Let's hope that defence counsels up and down the land take the lesson however.
Mr Intel? "Intel claims Apple should unlock the phone". What a waste of good clickbait.
"There are no limits to a DA's powers as long as he can pull bullshit out of his arse." No, I don't think that's the kind of limit the U.S. judicial system is supposed to be based on. Granted, with plea deals and absurd charges and prosecutorial immunity and whatnot, that's what we are getting at. But as long as it's not official, Ramos needs to do better than that.
...decrypting the phone releases the pathogen?
"...and only by examining the phone's content can any really be sure."
It could also be aliens, strange gods, spaghetti monsters or the invisible man and only by examining the phone's content can any really be sure.
wouldn't opening up the phone not RELEASE that dormant cyber pathogen?
The U.S. Justice Dept. is worried about what is on a single cell phone while Obama has left our boarders wide open to anyone who wants to come in. The FBI has misplaced priorities worrying about a single cell phone. They need to worry about the terrorist entering the U.S. with impunity. This, of course, shows that they simply want into every IPhone.
This is the best the government can do? There is no reason to even suspect that these people even considered a cyber attack on anything, let alone tried to use the phone to do it. This is NOT "Live free or die hard".
The US Government has some of the best cryptographers and some of the best tools in the world at their disposal. If the government wanted in that phone that bad, they would have been in it LONG ago. This entire situation is being used in an attempt to weaken consumer grade encryption throughout the digital world. While they have the capabilities to crack anything, it takes time and a lot of computing power to do it. If they can get the courts to agree that they need the help, they can sooner or later convince the courts that there MUST be a back door in all encryption. This would make their data collection much easier because they wouldn't have to waste the computing power for decrypting things that are only encrypted because Mrs. Grandma had a grandson that suggested she select a box saying keep this secure.
I think the courts will side with the county eventually. Just a matter of time.
This is a new technological development created by the brilliant scientists at ISIS. They used genetic engineering to create a human virus that attacks only Americans. I've read on the dark web that the virus makes the dicks of American men fall off, turning them into even bigger pussies than they seem to be in San Bernadino. Genius ISIS engineers have hidden the virus in the phone and when the battery bursts, as all batteries do with age, it will be released.
This is the biggest threat that America has ever faced. With nothing but dickless American males, not only will Americans be unable to reproduce, but also Hillary Clinton will have the biggest dick(incapable of reproduction) in the country. Obviously, that can't possibly end well.
Our only hope is to burn the phone in Whogivesafuckistan. But, it's only a matter of time before teh masterminds at ISIS figure out that UPS, FedEx and the USPS exist and deliver the virus in a greeting card. We've got to eliminate greeting cards and package delivery services before it's too late! For our safety.
This goes right with Obama "crying". BS!
Without taking the skin off it to check if there's an alien underneath, there's no way to be sure he's not planning to enslave the entire earth.
to the idea that probable cause should mean that the cause be near the 1.0 end of probability and not the 0.0 end?
Wouldn't that be a reason to throw it into a volcano instead of removing all safeties and turning it on?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Unlock the phone...and risk the disease getting out?
No, clearly this DA is clueless as to how technology works.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
and retarded. They can't see beyond the little box of them
Were so doomed just a matter of time. It is plain as the nose on your face that terrorism is the very least of Americas worries.
OMG! The phone contains systemd!
Have gnu, will travel.
... further proof this is all smoke and mirror's propaganda from the good 'ol USSA!
The NSA has been able to hack iPhone's (and every other mobile phone platform) for YEARS. Why is the goobermint making a stink about this one old-device, then? Oh, right, only the tin-foil hat wearing crowd know's for sure, but they're nutjob's, so ya know, can't trust them.
There could beviruses that infct humans on it (HIV, Ebola Zika,etc)
as well as computer viruses.
Destroying it with high enough temperature is the best bet.
For example thermite
the shooter's iPhone contains gay porn.
I think any cyber threat that exist were purely originated by alien DA's from Uranus.
And fails it real good !
This DA sounds like he is on a paranoid drug trip, similar to some crazy conspiracy theorist who forgot to take his asenapine saying that the government has implanted listening devices in his fillings. Rizwan was a food inspector and Malik was (educated as) a pharmacist. There is little if any indication that they had any background in advanced programming. And even the FBI seems unable, try as they might to stretch the definition, to tie the two of them to any significant terrorist organization so its unlikely that they received anything that way. As with most of these cases government officials seem happy to play to the idiots who watch too much 24 or similar programs that portray some massive conspiracy at play when in fact most of these cases are a few nutjobs randomly lashing out.
Luckily, the same D.A. has been selling his patented tin foil hats, to protect us all from this impending apocalypse.
Does it also contain the location of Jimmy Hoffa's body? That might be their next claim.
"... and I said to her, no no no, the Spaniards are dagos. These people are wops."
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
And Iraq may have had WMDs and there may be a God.
the government don't need to resort to such a convoluted ruse. The magic phrase '"because he is a terrorist!" will do.
Too much CSI Cyber.
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
Chuck it in water. If it floats, burn it!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
But it's encrypted in this iPhone and Apple won't unlock it!
-Sean Connery, The Medicine Man 2016 -
No, the phone may contain a Burger and French Fries.
The San Bernadino D.A. really, really wants that Burger and French Fries! We must do everything to ensure that the D.A. isn't unduly inconvenienced by the need to visit a fast food joint. Only the terr'ist iPhone Burger and French Fries will do!!
The DA's fishing again.
Remember, the South had just lost the Civil War and after the "Radical Republicans" took control of Congress in early 1867, the South was under a mix of actual and de facto federal control. Just about everyone who voluntarily supported the Confederacy - which included practically all former Confederate officials and commissioned military officers - lost their right to vote during this time (this right was later restored).
Excluding free slaves, those who were against secession in the first place, and the "Damn Yankees" who flooded into the South during Reconstruction, almost all adults in the South hated the "Radical Republicans" and as such, they were almost exclusively Democrats (or they would be, if they were eligible to vote).
So, saying the "first Klan" (former Confederate States of America, 1865-1871) was "exclusively Democratic" isn't saying much. It's like saying "there were practically no racists in the South who supported the Radical Republican tear-the-South-apart give-voting-rights-to-former-slaves political agenda. In a word: "Duh."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
What do you call a hobbled-security OS for a phone so tightly protected that no cyber pathogen could ever be inserted by anyone other than the company that makes it? A cyber pathogen!
The first cybernetic pathogen this can potentially cross the boundary from being a digital pathogen to being a genetic pathogen we should all be very afraid.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!
CAPTCHA: Captive
This dormant cyber pathogen must be some sort of neo-Asherah virus from the terrorists! They will control our minds! Apple must write a nam-shub so that the FBI can protect us!
Your tax dollars at work, folks. Anyone else want to send this DA some of Stephenson's early work to save him the trouble of having to reinvent the wheel?
-Turkey
This is the key. He screwed himself right there. It it's dormant, the best thing to do is to burn the phone.....which they should do anyway.
Cyber Pathogen? The only people who say Cyber-Anything have no idea wth they're talking about.
It's pretty obvious, but it's just another ploy to reach the emotional center of the problem, which shouldn't exist in the first place.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
It could also contain the cure for cancer, world peace or limitless energy supply, you know, while we're just making shit up it might as well be good.
There are a number of Christian terrorists like those who bomb abortion clinics in the US
Worldwide there's been TWO HUNDRED terrorist attacks by islamists with a combined death toll of 1000+ this year alone (and we're barely in March) but there's been ZERO abortion clinics bombing. Actually, in the US there's been no abortion clinic bombing in like 10 years, and most of those who happened in the past had none or very few victims. It's not a fucking secret it's all there on Wikipedia.
So before you tell people that their examples are poor and illogic, check your facts.
Tell me - why is it ok, for example, to say that domestic violence is bad and that it's mostly men who beat up women, but it's "hatred" to say that terrorism is bad and that it's mostly Muslims who commit such acts of violence? In both case EVERYONE knows that it's not the majority of the specified demographic segment that is guilty. Going on Bill Maher's show and warning people against "putting all Muslims in the same basket" is not commendable, it's politically correct bullshit.
There's a serious issue with islamic terrorism right now, there's people beheaded, journalists killed, people tortured, women sold in sex slavery and entire towns decimated, not mentioning the slow but constant destruction of the entire arab and persian civilizations, and it's far worse than what is reported in the liberal media because it's "hatred" to talk about it.
Fuck that hypocrisy. It's like that situation in Rotherham UK where 1,400 children were subjected to a pakistani pedophile ring for a period of TEN YEARS because the authorities were afraid to be called racists if they were to intervene. Look it up and see what the lunacy of politically correct bullshit can lead to.
Yes pick a country under the midst of civil war that has among its participants those who were not from Syria at all.
What's going on in Syria is not a mere civil war, it's the culmination of a 2000 years old fight between two Muslim factions: the Shia (Iran, Hezbollah, Syria's government, Iraq's majority, etc.) and the Sunni (ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Chechens, etc). The extreme violence of the last decades has been precipitated by the overall geopolitical situation and by blunders in the US foreign policy (such as pushing out the pro-Saddam Sunni minority from the Iraq government after the invasion, which radicalized a lot of people). But make no mistake: this war was raging for centuries before America started showing up on world maps. This is a Muslim problem and we're all collateral damage. So save me the politically correct bullshit with the "hatred" and "singling out one religion".
lucm, indeed.