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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'.
San Bernardino D.A. admitted he made the whole thing up.
You don't have to read the news to know there's no way this is a serious possibility.
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!
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...
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.