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Tim Cook Defends Apple's Approach To Security: 'Encryption is Inherently Great' (businessinsider.com)
Apple CEO Tim Cook has once again defended his company's hardline approach to security. At Utah Tech Tour event while taking questions from the audience, Cook said, (via BusinessInsider):"This is one of the biggest issues that we face. Encryption is what makes the public safe. As you know, there are people kept alive because the grid is up. If our grid goes down, if there was a grid attack, the public's safety is at risk" -- hence the need for encryption to protect it. "You can imagine defence systems need encryption, because there are a few bad actors in the world who might like to attack those. [...] Some people have tried to make it out to be bad," the chief executive told the audience at the Utah question-and-answer session. "Encryption is inherently great, and we would not be a safe society without it. So this is an area that is very, very important for us... as you can tell from our actions earlier this year, we throw all of ourselves into this." he added. "We're very much standing on principle here."
Encryption is insanely great.
FTFY, Tim.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Says the guy using encryption to visit Slalshdot so s/he can badmouth encryption.
Encryptions is for criminals. Ordinary people don't need military grade encryption to protect themselves. It's primarily used to hide illicit activities from the police and serves no legitimate purpose.
so true! illicit behavior like logging in to my toddler's Disney Junior account, or transferring money between my bank account and the electric company.
Painfully obvious troll is painfully obvious.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I'm no fan of Apple in general but on this point, no matter what their true motivations, the point is correct. Encryption *is* great, and required for today's society to operate securely. As Bruce Schneier said, we can either have security for everyone, or for none. The math just doesn't allow back doors that only work for "the good guys" (and there's no one definition of who those are, so it's a doubly-flawed premise.)
Yeah I'm sure in your head that's really satisfying to think about. Just don't expect it to pan out like that in the real world.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
You are confused.
The exploding phones are Samsung's, not Apple's.
We've had Yahoo creditials stolen, NSA hacks stolen, Blackberry is near bankrupt over its backdoors. The argument FOR backdoors have crumbled, so is it really necessary at this point to defend encryption?
If everyone had backdoored as the NSA/CIA chiefs wanted, then Russian+Chinese hackers would own everything at this point, and not just NSA hacks. They'd demonstrated by their incompetence the need for strong encryption, everywhere for everything.
Is anyone suggesting for example, that voting machines should be backdoored? That to me is the big risk now, an election with electronic voting machines susceptible to domestic and foreign bad actors.
be careful you you're handing out keys to.
as in.. DON'T. EVER.
Encryption is merely a component of Security, which is best labeled as a double-edged sword. Always has been. Always will be.
Privacy is great too, but we are making a lot of money from yours so we will just ignore that one.
Tim Cook thinks the same thing iPhone buyers think.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Dude, are you aware that it's no longer 1965?
The "grid" he is referring to is the network of computers, devices, services, AND electricity. The world is not going backwards from this. Global communications is only going to accelerate. We need to make sure that all devices are secure from bad actors. It is in the US constitution to NOT trust the government. They have a terrible track record of abusing power. It is therefor irresponsible to trust anyone with a back door access. Furthermore, encryption is math and it's in the public domain. Even if the gov somehow forces all tech companies to install a back door then two things will happen: tech companies will move operations over seas, and open source encryption systems will STILL be used anyhow without back doors.
It's pointless to argue about the mandated designs of back door encryption because there is no way to enforce it.
As to your post by about coding as a language and being required in school -- if you like money and you want your kids to have money in the 21st century then it's a really great skill to have.
"In conclusion, machines are bad, and people who rely on them are completely fucking stupid!" said the guy, typing on his computer, from the air-conditioned serenity of his parents' basement.
When asked if he could grow or produce his own food, purify his own water, and provide basic security and comfort for himself if his power and other modern comforts were turned off, he scoffed, "of course I could. I've seen The Martian, I think I could figure out how to grow a damn Cheeto plant."
Oh irony, you are so ironic.
Okay, I'll bite. How do you make "official exceptions" that CANNOT be used by the "bad guys"? Seriously curious here.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
We have this everywhere. My home is protected from police entry, until there's reason to make an exception.
Not quite. The police have the ability to obtain a warrant from a judge to bug my home. But if I happened to tell someone, in my own home, something to the effect of "let's go blow up the bombs next weekend," neither the police nor the courts can force me to admit I ever said that. That speech is protected, forever, via the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. So there's one exception that disproves your rule.
Breakfast served all day!
If our founding father's had been hacked by Britain, we would all be speaking with a British accent.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
That requires the encryption to be made in a way that it was never secure in the first place.
That's what judges are for. If you don't trust your judges, then that's what needs the fixing.
No, it requires a judicial order to be respected. The lock on my front door needn't have a bypass. You can just kick in the entire door.
That "you" are never forced to "admit" anything, has no bearing on someone collecting evidence, be it a note on your desk, or a note in your phone. If you record it, it's subject to a judicial order.
On the occasions when I have a discussion about things I just point out that if I were a thief I'd always prefer the back door.
It is when that note is written in a secret language only you know how to decipher. You should not be forced to give up the cipher.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I suspect that liability is one of Apple's motivations. They don't want to be responsible for being the custodian of all of their customers' data.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
blows up someone he knows and the bomber has this great phone.
Wrong phone
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
We rely on infrastructure for survival for thousands of years. Otherwise we would be dead as we all can't have an Acre or two of quality land where we have our food, water, heat and shelter to make us self sufficient.
Roads - Allow us to move goods to places where they are needed, from areas where there is excess.
Water/Sewer and Aqueducts move clean water to where we need it and moves dirty water away.
now today
We need power - as a way to prevent us from all burning wood for heat and fuel,
We also need the internet as our primary means of communication.
Without such technology we would die, not because we would be unprepared but because with population growth there are no ethical alternatives.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
On the other hand, no encryption means I have to go back to writing checks to pay bills, the way we did when I was a kid.
Because there's no way I'm putting my banking information online for everyone to look at using the backdoor(s) various people would love to see in place. Bad enough having to trust the people I WANT to give my money to, without having to absolutely trust everyone in the whole world who might want some of my money....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
true! illicit behavior like logging in to my toddler's Disney Junior account, or transferring money between my bank account and the electric company.
but of course that's what you are doing, no, you are not downloading child pornography and you are not stealing money
I REALLY hope you are teasing; otherwise, you need some help.
There's no in-between; you either support security you you support insecurity. If you're not for encryption, you're for public revelations of all personal data.
Truer words hath never been spake.
"should". bullshit. that's exactly what a judicial order is for.
blows up someone he knows and the bomber has this great phone. Then we shall see just how great he thinks it all is.
You do realize (who am I kidding? Of course you don't!) that that type of "hypothetical scenario" is an illegal debate tactic. "What if it was YOUR child?"
Judges decide who is allowed to legally look at things.
Which is irrelevant to my question, since my question is more about who is going to be able to ILLEGALLY use the backdoor.
Or are you one of those people who think that the government can invent a flawed encryption scheme that is literally impossible for someone else to abuse?
Note, by the by, that your solution can be implemented by skipping the backdoor and making all encryption illegal. After all, the Judges can keep the government from abusing the openly available data about everything that happens anywhere in the world, right? And no criminal would DARE to look at all that freely available information - it's against the law to do so after all, and we all know that criminals are intensely law-abiding, right?
So, when are you planning on publishing YOUR banking information, credit card numbers, etc to the world? After all, the judges will keep that from being abused.....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
You know what's even greater than encryption?
Not collecting personal data in the first place.
If Apple didn't gather massive amounts of information about their suckers - I mean, "customers" - they wouldn't need to worry about encryption and they wouldn't need to worry about safe-guarding the information.
Oh, please! I assume by your Apple-Bashing that you are a Fandroid?
NO one using Google's OS has ANY right to trash talk ANYONE about Data-Mining and "gathering", PERIOD.
I suspect that liability is one of Apple's motivations. They don't want to be responsible for being the custodian of all of their customers' data.
Apple has a long history or being rather anti-establishment/anti-government. Do some reading.
And there's a way to break into an iPhone. However it just takes more than the lifetime of the universe if the most stringent security settings are used.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Both are sharp and bleeding. You cannot (really) fight for privacy and for control at the same time.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
That's what judges are for. If you don't trust your judges, then that's what needs the fixing.
Ooooo! That's a "Don't get me started" subject, for sure...
Do you remember the 5th Amendment? Because it seems you've neglected that one.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Er what? Apple doesn't want to be the one that law enforcement has to go to every time they need another phone to be cracked. How many times in how many jurisdictions a day would that be? Also that would apply to any country not just the US. I wouldn't want to be that custodian.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
But how is the analogy apt? The reason that your home is reasonably secure from non-police battering your door down is that doing so is loud and draws attention. If the encryption is backdoored, the analogy is more akin to your front door being left ajar and anyone can slip in unnoticed.
One, the technology of encryption can't work like that. Two, what's wrong with a little more freedom / privacy for us plebes? The dubious benefits of mandating backdoors surely is greatly outweighed by the rights of the people to do what they want with their data.
If I invent a language that only I know, surely you wouldn't expect that I should have to register a translation guide with the local police?
Yes, and that's why Apple's also one to not offer "cloud everything". A lot of services rely on iCloud yes, but there's plenty that doesn't and Apple has even been moving stuff off from iCloud and into personal computation.
It's not just encryption, but just not having the data period. So an iCloud backup is easy and convenient, but is not a full iPhone backup - it lacks authentication information and other things that Apple doesn't want to have. Apple doesn't want your email, wifi and other passwords stored on their service where they'll be vulnerable to giving it up. So iOS basically doesn't even back it up. Heck, an unencrypted iTunes backup won't have that information either (in case the computer gets compromised). The only way you can back up everything is an encrypted iTunes backup, where it's not stored on Apple's servers (and vulnerable to a warrant), and is held local to your hardware.
Similarly Apple has reduced the amount of stuff that is done by their servers - like the latest iPhoto dfoes all the processing on-device rather than in-cloud to prevent uploading sensitive photos. And why it works differently across devices because each one independently executes.
I said nothing of a back door. I said a judicial order to grant access.
What you write down onto a piece of paper ain't covered. You created the record. That record is evidence. I don't care if it's in english, ascii, or cipher. judicial order is for evidence, behind any kind of key.
I didn't say backdoor. You said backdoor. Try again. I said judicial order -- hand over the key.
I didn't say backdoor. You said backdoor. I said judicial order means you open the door for them.
They sure rolled over quick when the FBI asked them for all the iCloud information they had about the San Bernardino terrorist.
Which they were required to do by law. Since they held that data (by permission of their customer) they are legally obligated to turn it over. However if the customer does not to use iCloud (which some do), they are not obligated to turn over data they don't have.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Think safe-deposit box. They are given authority to force the bank to open it. Or to force you to open it. Or to imprison both you and the bank manager.
Yes, and that's why Apple's also one to not offer "cloud everything". A lot of services rely on iCloud yes, but there's plenty that doesn't and Apple has even been moving stuff off from iCloud and into personal computation.
Part of it is that iCloud simply cannot logistically hold all of the customer's data. Like my music collection easily exceeds iCloud storage space and I'm not the most ardent music collector.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Again you missed the part where you are being forced to give up information NOT on the note. If the police want a note they can't decipher, they can have it. They can't force you to divulge the information inside your head.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
But that is by agreement with THE bank that they have a key. This is known when you open a safe-deposit box. In the case of Apple they have designed the system to where they don't have a key.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Without such technology we would die
Most of us would die, because we could not sustain our current population without this infrastructure. As far as I know we've relied on technology to one degree or another since the first proto-human killed prey with a spear or club.
In terms of "the grid", I don't know how that is defined, but even Greek sized city-states would not have survived without significant civil infrastructure and specialization. Even a small town would collapse in this day without it even if well fed and watered our life expectancy would drop in half just due to lack of basic medical technology.
You're missing the part of the judicial order. a judge decided that you should be forced to give it up. that's all that matters. no law or right should ever be absolute without exception always and forever. if you don't trust your judge, appoint someone else to make exceptions. either way, exceptions must always be possible in any reasonable system.
but you do have the key to yoru phone. and a judge must be able to compel you to give it up. because no law can be absolute without exception. if you don't trust your judge, then appoint someone else to decide such exceptions. but no matter what, exceptions must be possible.
so true! illicit behavior like logging in to my toddler's Disney Junior account, or transferring money between my bank account and the electric company.
In fairness, while you may use encryption to log in for that, big brother can find out you did it without trying very hard or anyone even challenging their warrant. Very likely others can too.
It's the communications that they can't pull without your knowledge that aren't housed in a framework they can easily extract it from that is being objected to.
I didn't say backdoor. I would never say backdoor. I said judicial order.
Er what? Apple doesn't want to be the one that law enforcement has to go to every time they need another phone to be cracked. How many times in how many jurisdictions a day would that be? Also that would apply to any country not just the US. I wouldn't want to be that custodian.
That's certainly a factor; but I know from being an Apple aficionado since 1976 that they just don't like the gummint much. Perhaps it comes from having their R&D labs raided by the FBI way back when, when it was rumored that Woz and John Draper (a/k/a Captain Crunch) were working on a digital "Blue Box" peripheral for the Apple 1...
Rumor has it that some stuff was confiscated. But I've never gotten Woz to confirm (or deny) the story. But after a few minutes of Google-fu, it looks like this may actually be the real story after all....
However if the customer does not to use iCloud (which some do), they are not obligated to turn over data they don't have.
One of the reasons that, despite my implicit trust in Apple, I do not use any iCloud services, iTunes Match, etc. None of it.
Having witnessed the Obama Administration spying on AP reporters and exploiting government agencies as political intimidation tools, encryption suddenly became a prime must-have for my computers. Government should NOT be intimidating political opposition and I don't want to be targeted for my lawful communications. When government cites criminal monitoring as a justification to hack into devices, I am skeptical knowing their history of intimidating lawful citizens. When Apple flipped the bird at the FBI over encryption back doors, I happened to be ready to upgrade so like so many others I bought an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.
Same thing happens when government is pushing gun control - lawful gun owners rushed out to purchase guns.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Nice strawman.
No. Nice observation.
The only reason he's sided with it is solely for the well-heeled - he doesn't wan't another embarrassment.
That, and it doesn't hurt him too much to prevent people from having too much freedom on their devices.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
They've been also quite favorable to the well-heeled, which is why they dragged their feet on encryption until relatively recent.
You're full of shit.
And where does your water come from? Did you dig your own well and install a hand pump in order to get the water out of it? Do you have your own purification system that you can power yourself, or a massive supply of purification tablets?
Because if you didn't, you are relying exclusively on the grid to stay alive as well. See: Post-Katrina New Orleans.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Encryptions is for criminals. Ordinary people don't need military grade encryption to protect themselves. It's primarily used to hide illicit activities from the police and serves no legitimate purpose.
Like it's no big deal if someone steals your trivially encrypted authentication for your bank account and takes all of your money? But let's go big time like they did in Bangladesh and simply steal directly from the banks.
Even FBI director Comey has stated that encryption is essential. He just believes in magic encryption faeries that will decrypt data that hides terrorists and pedophiles from the good guys. (I.e., Those he defines as good guys.)
Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
Nice strawman.
No. Nice observation.
It is your observation that someone who is critical of Apple can only be a "Fandroid"? And that is a "nice" observation?
No. I can count to two. And that's the number of viable Smartphone platforms.
So if you don't like Apple, it is a almost-sure foregone conclusion that you do like Android. That makes you a "Fandroid".
Just wait until someone uses this hammer to smash in someone's skull! Then we'll be able to go around outlawing hammers!
You are fucking retarded, and it's probably a good thing you posted AC.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
You're asking for the impossible. Either the encryption can hold the police out or it will also let the crooks in. If every door had to have a single master key held by the police, how long do you suppose it would be before criminals obtained a copy of that one very powerful key?
Except for if you turn that off.
Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services
But you knew that when you said it was "impossible" right?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
The user is generally protected from being compelled to do so by the Constitution, and for the manufacturer to do so requires a backdoor. Who were you envisioning being compelled by the court?
That exists now, so problem solved, right?
But if you say I was dabbling in the occult and wrote that while in a trance and I don't know what it says, they can't do anything about it. Just like with cryptography.
In other words, there's nothing new here.
Then explain why Apple all but waited for a certain incident until they'd embrace encryption. An incident involving rich people.
In addition, explain why Apple refused to help in an incident that would have given benefit to tons of ordinary people. That one.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
But to get that access you would need a back door.
If something is encrypted, even the creator of the device on which it resides CANNOT read it without the decryption key.
So, the judicial order might as well be one that orders all days to be 70 degrees and sunny for all the affect it will have.
The issue isn't the law it is MATH.
As judges are not kings, it can't possibly be all that matters.
That's some seriously misplaced logic.
It's not about the infrastructure vanishing, never to return. It's about the infrastructure vanishing, and not coming back for days, even a couple of weeks.
If you live where hurricanes are common, you already deal wit this - but there are warnings ahead of time. If you live where heavy snow can take everything down, you already deal with this. If you're Mormon (and observant), you're already ahead of the game with 1 month's supplies.
Given the vulnerability of the grid, it's time for everyone to come up to speed on this. Be ready for at least a week without utilities: some bottled water, some way to purify water, some foodstock that doesn't require refrigeration, or cooking (unless you have a fireplace/wood stove and have that all planned out). Basically, 2 weeks of camping supplies, heavy on the water.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Pretty sure iPhones aren't considered part of 'the grid' except maybe in the minds of Apple fanatics. Pretty sure iPhones depend on the grid-not quite the same thing as being part of the grid.. If you rely on public transit, that doesn't make you a bus driver.
Please stop spouting nonsense. Your "judicial order" isn't worth the electrons it's printed on without some kind of backdoor to bypass the encryption. Issue all the "judicial orders" you want—without a backdoor built in to the system beforehand the information will stubbornly remain encrypted.
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
what a simple world you live in.
Things are often simple when you reduce them in the crucible of logic.
I don't have it anymore.
You seem to not understand the whole damned debate. Judges already have the ability to order you to open a safe, hand over papers or decrypt a message if you are able. They cannot order you to hand over proof of alien life for example if you don't already posses it.
That has been the case for centuries now. The debate is over very hard to break encryption. Some law enforcement is pressing to mandate that all encryption can be decrypted without the owner's cooperation. In other words, they either want a ban on strong encryption (imagine banning deadbolts and reinforced doors) or they want a master key (obvious analogy). They generally present their argument as if personal documents they cannot read are a new thing.
...and you get imprisonned for the felony of not handing over the key. that's just fine.
I don't have my tax receipts anymore. I'm obligated by law to keep them for 7 years.
So the law that you want is very simply for the court to prove that you do indeed have it, and that you were obligated to keep it. So, here's the simple law: you are responsible for keeping your phone's crypt key safe and accessible, and be able to produce it within 24 hours of an order -- you know, just like my drivers' licence.
So, then a judge demands it -- presumably for reasonable reasons -- and you must produce it. You don't, it's a felony, fine and imprisonment.
Just like feeding my children, keeping my licence, mowing my front lawn, keeping my belt from getting too loose.
Oops my best wasn't tight enough is still indecent exposure.
The entire point of the 5th Amendment is that the government cannot compel action from you needed to incriminate yourself. That right should, indeed, be absolute without exception always and forever.
A warrant means the 4th Amendment is satisfied. The government can do what they like with that piece of paper
xceptions must always be possible in any reasonable system
BS. A reasonable system protects me from the government absolutely, requiring the government to work around that as best they can. There's no "except" in the Bill of Rights, aside from the warrant exception in the 4th. We keep punching unconstitutional holes in it because we're scared, or, rather, because tyrants leverage the fear of the people to incrementally strip their rights. You're helping them do that. Right now. You should be ashamed.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Your country is not mine, Sir. I'll remind you that your constitution says no such thing -- you had to ammend it thusly.
It sounds like you're suggesting it should be illegal to forget or lose your encryption key.
Those machines aren't using Apple software nor hardware. They aren't generally connected to the Internet (I guess that's what was meant by grid?) and if they do they have extensive firewalls ensuring that the core functionality is always available.
but you do have the key to yoru phone. and a judge must be able to compel you to give it up. because no law can be absolute without exception. if you don't trust your judge, then appoint someone else to decide such exceptions. but no matter what, exceptions must be possible.
That is not factually true. See Judge Orenstein's order that Apple should not be able to force to unlock a defendant's phone when the defendant would not do so. It's somewhat obvious you haven't read any case files or you'd know how badly you misconstrued the law.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Cluecheck:
With any phone, you're constantly sending your daily movements back to the phone company so that they know what cell to route your incoming calls and text messages to, and to provide mandatory E911 data to the government. Every move you make is tracked, beamed to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile (and onward to the government), without your "consent" merely by turning the phone on.
And no, even if you inspect the entire source, compile it yourself on a compiler which you've similarly audited, then side-load it onto a rooted phone on which you also have access to the firmware's source and inspected that as well; it is not at all possible to configure an Android phone that doesn't send ANYTHING to the phone company and government. Not, anyway, unless you never power the thing on. At all.
Apple may or may not be saints in this matter. But anyone and everyone who owns a phone, including myself and almost certainly including you, has already made a deal with the devil. So cry me a bloody river about Siri's location-aware suggestions.
Imagine all the people...
Big brother can find out what banking transactions I issued. Big brother cannot authenticate as me and issue transactions and then claim I issued them.
Why not if they have the motivation to do so?
What's to stop them from making fraudulent financial transactions or even placing CP on a target's computer/phone other than the same legal, ethical, and Constitutional limits and standards that they've shown a solid track record of totally ignoring when it suits them?
Strong encryption is the *only* effective defense realistically possible against this kind of criminal behavior by authorities and that is exactly why criminal scumbags like Comey want it neutered for non-government users. There is no logical argument for weakening/back-dooring common encryption standards/algorithms *other* than desiring the ability to spy on and incriminate/imprison anyone for any reason they wish.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
what a simple world you live in.
Things are often simple when you reduce them in the crucible of logic.
Also true when you lack intellectual capacity or motivation.
So sez the big, bad Anonymous COWARD.
So you wish to turn one of the most common reasons for calling IT support, forgot my password, into a felony? I guess we'll bump littering will get you the chair.
Meanwhile, I encrypt random thing and email it to you attached to a spam. BAM! You're a felon. Get a concussion, BAM you're a felon. Cop fat fingers your phone and corrupts the data so it won't decrypt even with the password, BAM you're a fellon. Cops lose/destroy the index card with the password on it when they toss your home, BAM you're a felon.
As for your examples, only not feeding your children is a felony and then, only if you repeatedly don't feed them when you were able to. Losing your license isn't even a misdemeanor as long as you don't drive until you get a replacement.
Do you really want 9 year olds to become felons when they lose their secret decoder ring?
We're talking here about malicious actors taking out specific utilities, or perhaps several, using software exploits, not the collapse of civilization. In the latter case, what you really want is a neighbor who has saved up everything you need, but is strongly anti-gun.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
... if you don't like Apple, it is a almost-sure foregone conclusion that you do like Android. That makes you a "Fandroid".
Say what? I know LOTS of people, (myself among them), who like neither platform. And if you took a Slashdot poll, I'm pretty sure you'd find lots more. The AC above who commented "nice strawman" probably should have said "nice troll" instead.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Encryption is necessary because the underlying network infrastructure and protocols are inherently crap.
Go well
Encryption is the hope that privacy is not sold with a mil or gov demanded trapdoor or backdoor. It is not anonymity.
The NSA can still work out who is chatting, who looked at site, video, what location, track the hops to friends of friends of friends.
The content of the message might be encrypted along the path but each end it of the Apple network is plain text again.
If a person is reading the message on a screen, so are the security services thanks to a consumer grade device been trusted and telco networked.
PRISM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... showed a generation of staff, gov and mil happy to work together to get around any external "encryption" to get all plain text.
Re "As for places and governments that would abuse such power, the problem isn't the abuse, the problem is the government."
That kind of hard. The US and UK have been reading messages in bulk since the 1900's and like the insights they get into the direction the population is trending.
Defence of the Realm Act 1914 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Project SHAMROCK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... "direct access to daily microfilm copies of all incoming, outgoing, and transiting telegrams via the Western Union and its associates RCA and ITT."
Political leadership is addicted and likes its total overview of all communications. The gov/mil workers love the good paying domestic spying jobs and free education.
Contractors like the no bid upgrades over decades and the security clearances that keep out the competition.
As PRISM showed company staff, crypto experts, academics, the press, legal experts are no help before, during and after the gov/mil asks for total domestic access.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I fully agree. Just one (minor) correction: The Math does allow backdoors that only work for the "good"/bad guys, but reality does not because it means keeping an encryption key absolutely secret long-term while it is also frequently used. Not even the NSA can apparently manage that. And if it fails, the effects are catastrophic.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
People do not understand that Mathematics is pretty absolute. Well, lets hope some small country somewhere mandates backdoors and a while later they cause a complete collapse of their economy by that. Without a catastrophe to point to, most people are too limited to understand even basic things.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
And what if you use an iPad and an Android phone?
Have fun experiencing cognitive dissonance for the first time.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
People do not understand that Mathematics is pretty absolute.
Including yourself.
Pathetic.
At least I will have the satisfaction that you will never amount to anything. Those unable to learn will repeat their mistakes endlessly.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
weaponize and use an extremely virulent disease
Movie plot threat.
hacks their way into a nuclear power plant's control system and causes a meltdown
The reactor wouldn't be contributing to the grid again, but power would certainly be back fast enough - worst case with rotating blackouts during high demand times.
Relying on other people to keep you alive in an emergency is silly.
Unless civilization collapses, "other people" will be working to restore normality - aside from the selfish ones hiding in their bunkers. If civilization collapses, "other people" are all that matters, as threats, victims, food, whatever.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
It's illegal for me to lose my drivers' licence, or my last seven years of tax receipts.
It is not true that it is illegal to lose your drivers' licence -- where on earth did you get that idea? It is illegal to drive without a licence in your possession but you are not breaking the law merely by losing your licence.
It is also not true that it is illegal to lose tax receipts from the last seven years. The Cohan Rule famously applies. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ro...
If you're going to analogise, you need good analogies.
"If people were inherently honest"
And if pigs had wings, they'd be pigeons. Security engineering is about the real world, not the world as we would like it to be.
Really? How hard would it be for a group to send a few "martyrs" to a place where there's a widespread Ebola outbreak to get exposed to the disease, then board a plane to New York City
Yeah, I think I saw that movie.
Fukushima
Three-Mile Island was a worst-case nuclear disaster for the US. The operations crew made the problem worse at every decision point, doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do. (To be fair, the "UI" was really quite bad). I was living not far downwind at the time. The result? A small amount of radioactive steam was released.
I can believe through some combination of a hacker and incompetence that a reactor could be made to melt down, but we seem to have thought through failure modes reasonably well here.
Which is why being prepared for the eventuality that you'll have to survive on your own without a government, or the military, playing nanny for you and your neighbors, is the prudent way to behave.
Only if you think the risk of that is large enough to be worth preparing for, and you wish to survive in such a world.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
They've been also quite favorable to the well-heeled, which is why they dragged their feet on encryption until relatively recent.
Thankfully most people aren't going to blow their modpoints trying to modbomb *this* =P
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.