Apple Might Be Forced to Hand Over iOS Source Code to the FBI (theguardian.com)

Bruce66423 writes: In its latest filing, the FBI implies that, if the burden on Apple programmers of their alternative approach is too great, then Apple should release the whole source code to the FBI to allow them to do the work, quoting the precedent of the Lavabit confrontation. Clearly it is time for Apple to move offshore!? To recall, Lavabit abruptly shut down in 2013 when the FBI attempted to get the company to hand over the encryption keys for its secure email service. While the current situation seems to put Apple in the same ballpark as Lavabit, what gives the Cupertino-giant company an advantage is the immense support it is receiving from other Silicon Valley companies and personnel. Many believe that the FBI doesn't really need Apple's help in unlocking the iPhone. Reports claim that the iPhone in question already has a "backdoor" which could allow the government-backed institution to access the data on the smartphone. Other widely reported theories include cracking the iPhone and manipulating the innards to trick the system into spilling out all the information. One proposed method, which requires the phone's NAND flash chip to be taken out, may not work, though. Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a technology fellow with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, pointed out the risks in playing with flash memory. He said that an error in removing the memory could make the data unreadable forever.

Comments

It's simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

The FBI doesn't want anybody to be able to keep any secrets from it ever, with no regard to what impact this might have on commerce. They are attempting to use this case to ensure that they get complete authority and ability to decrypt everything at their whim. If they can offload the work to other companies for free, all the better, but the real win is that nothing anywhere can ever be kept secret from them for any reason.

That's all this is. Everything else is just politico/legalease/bullshit.

Re:It's simple.

[s.petry]

There are plenty of places for you to educate yourself on the subject outside of Slashdot. I would strongly recommend that you do your homework in the future.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly ...

Demanding a company perform an action which is ILLEGAL in all other circumstances meets and exceeds the definition of abuse of power. If you want to use the common, and somewhat fallacious, argument of a safe: A safe maker may be compelled to produce a key for a safe, and reimbursed for the cost of making said key. If the safe owner modified the lock and the key does not work, the Government can NOT compel the safe maker to blow open the safe.

What the Government is demanding is not just for Apple to blow up the safe, they are requesting a permanent opening be made in ALL safes for their convenience. The only way this would meet probable cause would be to claim that ALL citizens are criminals. That last part is a violation of much more than the 4th amendment.

iOS source should not be handed over

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's be honest, the FBI's goal isn't to access one iPhone. They want access to all encrypted communications. This should be obvious. Handing over the source code to iOS will probably allow the FBI the opportunity to look for other vulnerabilities that could be exploited to read private communications. This isn't acceptable. Furthermore, wouldn't Apple still need to cryptographically sign any build of iOS that would be loaded onto the San Bernardino shooter's phone? The FBI has carefully picked the fight in a case where there's no defending the deceased shooter to maximize public opinion being on their side. They're being disingenuous and it's obvious to anyone who's willing to look carefully at their claims. What is it that makes elected officials almost unanimously support reducing the privacy of the people when there's no such consensus among the people? And why isn't there an effort to impeach the leaders of these three letter agencies for their activities? Impeachment isn't limited to the President, and those who violate the Constitution as they do should be accountable through impeachment.

Re:So, the NSA & FBI can crack the iPhone . .

[pla]

Well played.

Not really - They've backed Apple into a corner. In response, Apple has only two logical next moves - Send all their platform-level development overseas ("You can thank the FBI for the loss of those 1500 highly paid American jobs"), and make the encryption truly unbreakable (absent some unknown weakness in the algorithms themselves), both at rest and in-transit.

Apple may well lose this round - But they can salt that field so deeply as to make Uncle Sam wish he'd never asked. "Gee, sorry, did we just make all your expensive Stingrays almost completely useless, boys? Oops, our bad, wink wink nudge nudge!"

Regulating the wrong device

[tekrat]

The government is trying to regulate a PHONE because "terrorism" -- but of course, won't lift a finger to impose any regulation on the other, more important device used in terrorism -- the GUN itself.

So, lemme get this straight: you want to impose all these restrictions on my phone, listen to my every phone call, read every email and text message, look at pictures of my GF, and basically peer into my personal life and the personal lives of every American, all because you won't even regulate keeping an eye on someone when they buy 50000 rounds of ammo and large capacity magazines?

Dude, I have to show my driver's license to buy cold medication, but you won't even perform simple background checks when someone buys a gun?

This country is truly fucked up.