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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'.

39 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    San Bernardino D.A. admitted he made the whole thing up.

    1. Re:Old News by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 4, Funny

      a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino County's infrastructure and poses a continuing threat to the citizens of San Bernardino County'.

      San Bernardino D.A. admitted he made the whole thing up.

      making him a lycanthropic doormat carbon-based pathological lying golem that endangers San Bernardino County's infrastructure and poses a continuing threat to the citizens of San Bernardino County.

      --
      <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
  2. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Travis+Mansbridge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't have to read the news to know there's no way this is a serious possibility.

  3. Unicorns by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!
    1. Re:Unicorns by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 4, Funny

      That is more probable than you think and potentially another of the reasons why the terrorist wanted to kill infidels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  4. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No need to even speculate, it's just absurdity on the surface. A totally non-technical person made up a new "security" term to scare people. If you want to find a link countering it, it's trivial - including quotes from the DA that he made it up...

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

  5. Link to news this is made up by davidwr · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:Link to news this is made up by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 2

      While the technical aspect is a "non-issue" (as pretty much anyone with any understanding of tech could guess), the story itself is neither a non-issue nor is it false. Rather, the DA is backpedaling and trying to cover his ass. "Oh, there was no cyber-pathogen, I was just worried about what the Farook might have done with the phone."

      It is as much bullshit as his initial claim. He lied in an amicus brief to a judge with his initial claim. That he can get away with such a blatant lie to a judge - and in such a high-profile case - is embarrassing. He ought to at least lose his job, if not get smacked with perjury or contempt of court.

  6. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its in the article that Apple's iphone security guy said that the "cyber pathogen" was a unicorn. I'm not surprised at the D.A. lying to make his case. Cops do it all the time. Politicians are born to lie.

  7. Holy Water by kenwd0elq · · Score: 5, Funny

    The ONLY CURE for a "lying dormant cyber pathogen" is for the phone to be boiled in holy water.

  8. What IQ test you have to fail to become a DA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Lolwut by flopsquad · · Score: 4, Funny

    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 /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    1. Re:Lolwut by Barny · · Score: 5, Funny

      Could these spearphishing viruses use the IoT to vector into self-driving cars and thus, synergize with illegal 3d printer technology?

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    2. Re:Lolwut by flopsquad · · Score: 2

      Oh god I hadn't even thought of that! Yes of course, it all makes sense.

      I hope it's not too late to amend the brief. The judge needs to know that the threat of a hacked botnet of drones equipped with self-firing 3D printed guns is both real and credible.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    3. Re:Lolwut by Barny · · Score: 3, Insightful

      At this point if Apple do not assist, we can only assume they are harboring TERRORISTS. How long with these monsters be allowed to go unhindered on US soil? Drone strikes are of course, the only answer.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    4. Re:Lolwut by flopsquad · · Score: 2

      It's all well and good for us to take the piss out of a bunch of statist Luddites.

      But some small part of me worries in 15 years I'm going to be standing up at a school board meeting, holding my temples and grimacing with exasperation, "Our children are not, and never have been, in danger from NDSVs! There's no such thing as nuclearized darkweb spearphishing viruses! It was a joke posted on the Internet years ago, and this prosecutor in California kept repeating it because it sounded scary!"

      Grumbles and shaking heads, and an angry dad stands up, "Hey, terr'ists I-O-T-ing into my truck with illegal 3D printers ain't no joke!"

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
  10. Anyone's Phone... by seven+of+five · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

    1. Re:Anyone's Phone... by aralin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You remind me of the people who were so afraid of vaccines harming their kid, they didn't let the doctor vaccinate him and then the kid drowned in their backyard pool, because drowning is still actually the #1 cause of children under 5 dying.

      You are so afraid of the terrorists trying to kill us by poisoning our water, that we spend trillions on trying to prevent it, which forces us to try to save a million dollars by switching a water source and poisoning water for tens of thousands of people.

      You, uninformed citizen, are the number one leading cause of death, suffering and loss of freedom.

      --
      If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
    2. Re:Anyone's Phone... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      No, your original argument is BS. There is absolutely no indication that anything of interest is on the phone. So, no probable cause. And if you want to get it decrypted, either get the owner (the county) or hire someone else to decrypt it. After all, if Apple could do it, so can the Chinese, the Russians, and the NSA.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    3. Re:Anyone's Phone... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly this. People worry about terrorism like it's a daily occurrence here. Even if we include the 9-11 attack (which was clearly an outlier), there have been something like 4,000 people killed in terrorist attacks on American soil in the past 15 years. That's an average of 267 a year. Given that there are about 308 million Americans, that means we have a 0.00009% chance of being killed by a terrorist every year.

      According to the CDC, 10 people die of drowning every day. That would be 3,650 people a year or over 13 times the risk of being killed in a terrorist attack. But you don't see a "War on Drowning", will calls to ban swimming pools and erect giant fences around lakes. You don't see plumbers being called in for questioning on suspicion of installing a bathtub that could lead to someone drowning.

      There are always going to be wackos who threaten lives. We can be smart about finding them and stopping them, but the risk they pose isn't nearly high enough to justify the amount of liberties we are giving up. Whether we should give up liberties at any risk level is another story, of course, but the insanely low risk of terrorist attack makes it all the more ridiculous.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  11. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Informative

    Think of a computer illiterate trying to sound as smart as possible talking about a virus for the first time. If you substitute "trojan virus" for "lying dormant cyber pathogen", it sounds a lot more realistic.

  12. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 2

    I'm not 100% sure, but isn't this something from the movie Hackers?

    Didn't the bad guy manage to get the FBI to chase down the kids because of a cyber pathogen?

    I wonder if this cyber pathogen is named "The DaVinci Virus".

    It worked for the guys in the movies... maybe it'll work for the lawyer.

  13. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    It is truly county property, but it would appear the FBI directed the county IT staff to reset the iCloud password, preventing the phone from backing itself up and creating this whole conundrum to start with.

  14. Could have???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  15. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 5, Funny

    Asian people will eat anything. They are disgusting.

    Tic

    We eat what keeps us alive. Asians have an odd diet due to what's available, Japanese eat anything out of the sea, and the United States will eat anything disguised as meat.

  16. Terrorists, drug dealers, and pedophiles by phorm · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  17. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by tlambert · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even though the whole "pathogen" thing is retarded beyond belief, if it is truly county property, then IMO it's a no brainer to let the government access it.

    Of course.

    The government should have their most excellent programmers access it. No one wants to prevent the government from accessing something they have permission to access. So their most excellent programmers should do an end run around Large Number Theory, and magically access it.

    Or they could just apply to a FISA court for a warrant, and ask the NSA for the data, since the NSA PRISM program monitors the communications that would have been used to back up things like the address book in the first place.

    No need to involve Apple at all!

  18. No, It's True! by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

  19. Because if it's a polite request... by tlambert · · Score: 4

    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?

    1. Re:Because if it's a polite request... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Because if it's a polite request from a customer, large number theory and computability theory don't apply any more?

      No because it appears there is a security flaw where the updatable main CPU software checks for the 10 retries before issuing a wipe command as opposed to the non updatable secondary security processor. Therefore, by updating the main software, you can (a) remove failure checks and (b) do the 10,000 checks automatically very fast. This means the phone can be craked open rather easily. However, the processor won't boot unsigned code, so only Apple can replace the software to do that.

      Apparently.

      Not sure if it's true, but that's the claim. If it wasn't true, I don't see how it would be possible for Apple to comply, but that doesn't seem to be their argument. It seems there's a security flaw in the phone that allows Apple and only Apple to crack it. With this type of flaw, I strongly suspect that the only solution to fix it is with better hardware on new phones.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  20. Then unlocked iPhone = biggest threat by burni2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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!

  21. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by meerling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except a Trojan and a Virus are two entirely different types of malware.
    Back to the topic though, the D.A. is talking out his ass regurgitating hollywood movie bullshit in an attempt to stir up fear in the ignorant masses to get what he wants. I bet he still believes computers run on pixie dust.

  22. Not just the cyber pathogen! by aglider · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  23. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 2, Informative

    Asians will see a pile of shit on the ground and the first thing that pops into their heads is "Can I eat that?"

    Gelatin blood cubes, century eggs, dogs, cats, monkey brains, elephant feet, tarantulas...there is nothing that asians won't stick into their mouths.

    I've lived in the Philippines, the family invited to many Filipino parties which included a feast of food, nothing there I wouldn't eat except Balut (your century eggs). Yet the eggs seen as quite a delicacy.

    Rats, yes at carnival's they came flayed on a stick and eaten as a treat. Again something I've never given a try.

    Cats, can't say, they are rather rare and can't I remember seeing any.

    Monkey brains, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... says it's a tribal thing. I've never heard of them as food outside of a tv program that made it seem a rare and expensive indulgence.

    Dogs, yes as a boy scout in the Philippines a yearly event was to walk 50 miles of the Bataan death march, during which I've seen a few dogs laid out being butchered. I've lived all over the world (Air Force dependent) in many Asian/non-Asian countries I see dog as a dietary main stay when they can be found, or raised.

    As I understand it there's no nutritional value in poop, so more energy eating it than it provides. Plus the sanitary facilities make it rather hard to acquire.

    The rest of your list (elephant feet, tarantulas (spiders)) I can imagine them being eaten, but not by the general populous as they aren't common but to a small area.

    A tribe in Central America eat huge spiders common in that area, they toss them into a fire and turn till done (History channel).

  24. Re:Yesterday's retracted news by thegarbz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Asians will see a pile of shit on the ground and the first thing that pops into their heads is "Can I eat that?"

    Gelatin blood cubes, century eggs, dogs, cats, monkey brains, elephant feet, tarantulas...there is nothing that asians won't stick into their mouths.

    Of course. Basic human survival depends on obtaining nutrition to keep your body functioning. The first reaction should always be "can I eat that". In that way the Asians are no different than the Americans, only that you at some point decided that you'll eat things based on look and opinion rather than nutritional value.

    I find it funny that you have no problem eating the remains of an animal that spends it's life rolling in a mudpile and it's own shit with a side of a chicken's period for breakfast, but can criticise someone eating an animal that spends a disproportionate amount of it's time keeping itself clean (cat).

    Funny side story in Australia we got news of the European scandal where someone was substituting horse meat in pre-packaged lasagnes. I heard this news on the way home from the local market where a German butcher sells delicacies. 2 friends of mine in the car lost their mind and were disgusted at the prospect.

    I bought a horse salami at that butcher and just kept quiet.

  25. But but but by Rattenhirn · · Score: 2

    wouldn't opening up the phone not RELEASE that dormant cyber pathogen?

  26. Whatever happened ... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

    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?

  27. Re: Naked Picture of Trump and Christie by lucm · · Score: 2

    And KKK members, neo-nazies, and gun nuts vote on yours...

    Let's see what Wikipedia has to say on this:

    The members of the first Klan in the South were exclusively Democrats.

    If reading is too demanding for you, try this video, they explain the long love story between the KKK and the Democrats.

    http://www.newstalk1130.com/on...

    Besides, people in the video I shared previously are not extremists, they are regular Obama supporters. If you have to use a (flawed) KKK example to "balance out" their ignorance, you've pretty much made my point for me.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  28. Re:KKK in 1865 "exclusively Democrats" = well duh! by lucm · · Score: 2

    The KKK was founded by Democrats and the membership remained mostly Democrats for a long time after the Republicans fought slavery. And there's plenty of racism in the history of the Democratic party after that, such as Woodrow Wilson who segregated the military and federal employees (which was undone by a Republican, Eisenhower).

    Associating the KKK to Republicans to paint a racist picture of the GOP is dishonest and lazy.

    --
    lucm, indeed.