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You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Mac News > Apple: we won't sue to force FBI to reveal iPhone hack

Apple: we won't sue to force FBI to reveal iPhone hack
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Apr 8, 2016, 08:34 PM
 
Apple has confirmed reports that it will not sue the FBI in an effort to get the agency to reveal the method it used to crack into the San Bernardino iPhone 5c, saying whatever method the FBI ended up using will have "a short shelf life," as the company has made significant improvements to security in later iPhones and operating system updates, and users upgrade their iPhones routinely. In a related case brought by the US Department of Justice in New York, however, Apple may require the FBI to reveal the method in order for the agency to prove in court that its claim that the hack doesn't work on newer iPhones is true.

In a case in Brooklyn that is similar to the San Bernardino case in the legal implications and laws invoked, the DOJ is appealing a judge's ruling that the agency can't use the All Writs Act to force Apple to weaken security on its devices. In that case, the seized iPhone in question is an iPhone 5s, which features a Secure Enclave -- making it much more of a challenge to decrypt. Because the government is appealing the ruling, Apple's lawyers have an opportunity to force the agency to reveal the method used as part of a challenge that the agency has not exhausted all possible avenues to break into the iPhone before resorting to the AWA court order.

Apple's attorneys have told members of the media invited to a conference call that while they do not know for sure the method used by the FBI, they are "confident" it will not be a security concern for most users, particularly if the FBI's claim that the method only works on the iPhone 5c and earlier -- i.e., iPhones that do not have the Secure Enclave -- is true. They also noted that Apple's normal product development cycle of hardware and software security improvements would eventually close the exploit, even if it worked on newer iPhones. The vast majority of iPhone users in developed nations are using a model of iPhone that is three years old or newer, meaning most models have the enhanced security the government has said it cannot break.

Belying again his own claim that the FBI pursued the AWA-based court order to try and force Apple to weaken its device security for a single case -- the San Bernardino workplace massacre -- and did not want to set a precedent, FBI Director James Comey admitted when disclosing that the exploit the FBI has only works on older models that he did not want to reveal the method to Apple, so that the agency could use it on other cases. "We tell Apple, then they're going to fix it, then we're back where we started from," he told the press.
     
Inkling
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Apr 9, 2016, 08:45 AM
 
The arrogance of Apple's legal department knows no bounds. They attack a judge and, by implication, those who appointed that judge. They criticize the DOJ when their co-defendants simply conceed. In this case they go still further and call high FBI officials liars. That's why Apple has been losing court case after court case.
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Spheric Harlot
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Apr 9, 2016, 09:51 AM
 
The FBI has either outright lied, or is mind-numbingly naïve.

Nobody following along believed FOR A SECOND that the demands on Apple would end with this one San Bernardino iPhone, as the FBI claimed. Nobody.

At any rate, the vulnerability is already fixed in all newer devices, so Apple has nothing to worry about.
     
SierraDragon
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Apr 9, 2016, 12:37 PM
 
Inkling has not an inkling of a clue. Apple cooperated with hundreds, probably thousands, of FBI requests and court orders, including related to the San Bernardino case. Apple (IMO correctly) refused, however, when directed to program a back door into its phone OS.

Then the FBI LIED and said they were interested in only _one_ phone, and tried to use public opinion to coerce Apple to write code to break its own OS. Apparently the FBI's prevarication worked on some folks (e.g. see Inkling's comments), but then the FBI Director was asked the same question under oath and he had to reveal the original lie and state that the FBI had _many_ phones that they wanted to use a back door from Apple on.

The [un]Patriot Act carved a major chunk out of the fabric of our society that mere terrorists could otherwise never have done. Now the FBI wants to continue that direction by denying firms the right to build devices secure even from the device manufacturer's workers.

Some folks forget that government is
A) imperfect;
B) composed of humans, some corrupt;
C) hacked with some regularity; and
D) has a tendency toward corruption by power at the highest levels (e.g. POTUS Richard Nixon, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, etc.).

The real question is very simple: should the US government be allowed to force firms to build "back doors" into their own encrypted devices?
I say no.


Individuals and firms need to do the _right_ thing, and what is right is not always what some LEO or judge has to say.
     
Charles Martin
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Apr 9, 2016, 05:01 PM
 
Inkling appears to have us confused with Trump's Twitter account, where one just makes pronouncements and does not bear corrections or rebuttals.
Charles Martin
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Inkling
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Apr 12, 2016, 09:56 AM
 
Oooh. Look at the Apple fanboys come out in force. I merely pointed out that Apple has been losing some high-profile lawsuits lately and suggested that one reason might be their attacks on judges and federal agencies. Read what I posted, and you'll see that my main reference was to their dispute with the DOJ over ebook pricing. In that case I think Apple and the publishers were innocent and the judge wrong. I have said so many times. But Apple's attacks on the judge quite likely led to their loss at the appeals court level. Apple's lawyers are forgetting two key factors in these legal disputes. It's federal agencies who choose to prosecute and the courts who decide. Don't tick them off. Focus on your case and making the best arguments for it. Also, gven the cases either pending against Apple (massive EU tax evasion) or already lost (the conspiracy to not solicit the other company's employees), it is easy to suspect that Apple has been playing fast and loose with the laws. By attacking the FBI, Apple's lawyers have painted a giant bulls eye on the company. What the feds go after may be genuine crimes. But they may also be crimes might not have been discovered without this provocation.
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