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iPhone Encryption Hampers Investigation of Texas Shooter, Says FBI (chron.com)
"FBI officials said Tuesday they have been stymied in their efforts to unlock the cellphone of the man who shot and killed at least 26 people at a church here on Sunday," reports the Houston Chronicle. Slashdot reader Anon E. Muss writes:
The police obtained a search warrant for the phone, but so far they've been unable to unlock it. The phone has been sent to the FBI, in the hope that they can break in... If it is secure, and the FBI can't open it, expect all hell to break loose. The usual idiots (e.g. politicians) will soon be ranting hysterically about the evil tech industry, and how they're refusing to help law enforcement.
FBI special agent Christopher Combs complained to the Chronicle that "law enforcement increasingly cannot get in to these phones."
A law professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology argues there's other sources of information besides a phone, and police officers might recognize this with better training. As just one example, Apple says the FBI could've simply just used the dead shooter's fingerprint to open his iPhone. But after 48 hours, the iPhone's fingerprint ID stops working.
FBI special agent Christopher Combs complained to the Chronicle that "law enforcement increasingly cannot get in to these phones."
A law professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology argues there's other sources of information besides a phone, and police officers might recognize this with better training. As just one example, Apple says the FBI could've simply just used the dead shooter's fingerprint to open his iPhone. But after 48 hours, the iPhone's fingerprint ID stops working.
If only there was some sort of Police Work that could be done to solve these crimes without taking away everyone rights of privacy...
Guy busted his kid's skull. Guy took weapons on base. Guy spent a year in the brig. Guy got dogs off Craigslist to shoot for target practice.
Guy was a major asshole with huge red flags over his head who should have been found and neutralized years ago. If only the Air Force had followed existing laws that would have prevented him from buying guns. But no, we need more gun control and backdoor encryption.
The phone? The fibbies knew there was a 48 hour timeout on the fingerprint thing. The fibbies knew without that they didn't stand a chance of getting into the phone (or they have a way in they don't want us to know about).
This is just the government narrative of "we have to have backdoor encryption cuz this dude".
We know the USAF gave him a minimum sentence for cracking his babies skull, did not give him a dishonorable discharge, and chose to protect this baby beater by not entering his information into the criminal database. If there is anything to investigate, it is whey the USAF protect wife and kid heaters. The USAF, in fact, could have put him in jail for fiver years, given him a dishonorable discharge, and made his crime public record. The reason that dozens of people are dead is because they chose not to.
The iPhone thing is just another effort to continue to erode our rights to privacy. It is not going to bring the dead back. It is not going to prevent the air force from releasing another trained killer, maybe this time a baby killer, back into society to murder even more people.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
There must be no access possible under any conditions
Because we already KNOW they do illegal search and seizure on a daily basis.
THEY can not be trusted therefore:
Bulletproof and invulnerable encryption is our only recourse to force police to act within the law
Phone encryption is the problem here, not how easy it is for any lunatic to get a gun in the US. Sounds like just another distraction from the real issue.
Here is the 2nd Amendment:
Back in the day, the word "well regulated" mean "well equipped". The revolutionaries had just finished fending off the well equipped military of the King of England, and they did so because men of fighting age had arms.
In order to keep the new American State free, it's necessary to protect the State's freedom with a well equipped group of fighters. Thus, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, because not only is that an inalienable right endowed by the Creator (as indicated in the Declaration of Independence), but keeping and bearing arms allows The People to be ready to fight for their freedom—especially against a distant, intractable, Tyrannical power, as the Federal government increasingly seems to be.
Look, the American theory of government is that rights existed before the government; it is not the government that grants rights, but rather the "Creator" (i.e., rights are an inherent aspect of sentient beings). A government gets its authority from the fact that The People collectively agree to delegate some of their own authorities to the Government; yet, the founders thought that the right to bear arms is so fundamental and important to a Free society, that they decided to enshrine that right explicitly in the 2nd Amendment (rather than leave it as one of the implicit, "unenumerated" rights), and in doing so, the founders forbade the government from even accepting from The People any delegation of the associated authority—as the Constitution is currently written, it's not even possible for The People to delegate away their right to keep and bear arms.
If the governments of the United States ever did get rid of the Second Amended, there would be a lot of people who would cry "Tyranny!"; those people would deny ever having legitimately delegated their right away, and there would be—without any doubt—a second Civil War.
Maybe a 48 hour cooling off period and a criminal background check should be required before you are able to buy an iPhone.
what exactly are they hoping to learn? This sort of thing has been going on for ages and we've done fuck all about it. No sign of gun control since it's a complete losing issue politically. No expansion of mental health services. Hell, this guy was kicked out of the church by the pastor.
There's nothing to investigate here. A depressed loon ball with access to high power killing equipment who'd been shit on a bit too much said 'fuck it'. Case closed. What, you think you're gonna find the illuminati are behind it all? This is just another excuse to get decryption keys and back doors from manufactures. Fortunately it'll go nowhere since the more we discuss it the more we have to bring up universal medical care (which nobody wants to pay for) or gun control (which is DOA).
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> He shouldm't have been unable to purchase guns on the basis that ...and had a history of violent behavior.
> expand the data used in conducting these checks. Those on the right complain loudly that this somehow violates their second amendment rights
You're totally unaware that you're advocating for exactly the same things the NRA is saying. Under existing federal law, his attempts to purchase should have been blocked because he had plead guilty to intentionally attacking his toddler stepson so bad that he broke the baby's skull. But some people in government don't want to follow the law, they want to keep passing and ignoring more laws. Had the authorities followed existing federal laws, the purchases would not have been allowed.
Do you think the guy should have served serious prison time for intentionally breaking a kid's skull? How about for the numerous domestic assault cases? If you do, and if you actually believe what you said about actually DOING background checks, rather than passing and ignoring another pretend law, than you ARE "the right".
How about a service running on the phone that keeps up with when the phone is unlocked? If it hasn't been unlocked within a certain amount of time, say one month or one year or whatever, it assumes the owner no longer uses the phone and it automatically unlocks. All the authorities would have to do is keep it charged until then.
Of course, law enforcement could always arrest somebody and keep them in jail for that period of time, but if that happens, our problems with this society are far worse than loss of privacy.
And then someone gets a copy of Apple's private key and leaks it.
Kinda like what happened to the NSA's hacking tools.