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FBI Says It Can't Release iPhone Hacking Tool Because It Might Still Be Useful (zdnet.com)

Justice Dept. officials say that details of a hacking tool used to access a terrorist's iPhone should not be released because it may still be "useful" to federal investigators. From a report: The government is fighting a case against three news organizations, including the Associated Press, which are fighting to release details of the hacking tool that FBI agents used to unlock a passcode-protected phone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. Details of the hacking tool have remained classified, not least because the Justice Dept. believes the tool may could still be used by the FBI in similar cases. "Disclosure of this information could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security as it would allow hostile entities to discover the current intelligence gathering methods used, as well as the capabilities and limitations of these methods," said David Hardy, section chief of the FBI's records management division, in a court filing released late Monday.

2 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hello_1984.m by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's supposed to be a joke.

    It's a play on the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode where Commander Pikard is abducted by Romulans and subjected to mental torture. They keep telling him that two plus two equals six, but he denies this. Each time he denies it they smack him around. Then Captain Data and his star ship get there just in time and teleport Commander Pikard out, just like happens in pretty much every sticky situation in that series.

    In this case 3 - 1.1111111111111111111 equals 2.99999999999999999. So if you think in terms of integers then 2.99999999999999999 becomes 2 and so 2 + 2 = 4, but in this fellow's program 2.99999999999999999 + 2.99999999999999999 = 5.888888888888888 when is rounded up to 6. So it outputs "2 + 2 = 6", and then you're supposed to laugh because it's supposed to be funny, or something like that.

  2. Re:Is this part of the adult conversation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The fact that something happened (or didn't happen) in this particular case doesn't invalidate their point, since their point doesn't depend on finding something useful in every single instance. There may be other facts or issues that do invalidate their point, but not this one.