How about cloning the phone, encrypted data and all? Is that possible? It should be, and then you could just keep the original untouched, and brute-force the passwords on one clone at a time, throwing out each clone as it self-destructs.
This would also enable bypassing the delay to enter a password, because you could run the search in parallel on all clones at once.
As for entering the passwords through some means other than the touchscreen, doesn’t Apple support external hardware keyboards? And can’t you enter a password using one? OK, then, you can also make a device that plugs into the same port and sends the same signals a keyboard would, automatically, without need for mechanical keys.
Both of these should be within the FBI’s capabilities, without any cooperation from Apple at all. Why not just do so?
The FBI wants to protect your life and your information from criminals who can conduct their deeds in secrecy with unbreakable encryption. Apple is putting profits ahead of their patriotic duty and the public good and is pandering to the paranoid fantasies of people who read too many sci-fi novels in their teens.
If you’d been paying attention, you’d know that the government’s cybersecurity is downright pathetic. For example, Chinese Intelligence almost certainly already has somebody by the short and curlies (thanks to the OPM hack of security-clearance data) who would be in a position to send them a copy of the software if Apple is forced to develop it for the Feds.
Well, let the FBI do it themselves, then, if it’s that easy.
Yeah, and the words “deficit increases under my tax plan” and “destruction of the middle class through my economic policies” are not anywhere to be found in politicians’ rhetoric. By your reasoning, this proves that no proposed policy of any candidate for office could possibly result in either of those results.
I’m not sure if it’s possible - I think you need a phone’s password to clone it, at least with the software that currently exists. It should be easy to do for the software developers to allow it, but then you’re back to square one, asking the developers to implement a feature (or turn off a feature) that’s different from what’s on the market.
treis has been giving fact-based answers in this thread (thanks treis!), so let’s take a minute to really understand what’s going on.
A few points:
The encryption used on the iPhone is strong, and no one has asked that Apple compromise it (at least not in this thread, the FBI has been asking that manufacturers give them back doors but that’s not the question here). Tim Cook’s letter, IMO, used needlessly hyperbolic claims about what’s going on here.
treis, please fact-check this: the software load on an iPhone is also encrypted, so that a phone will reject an OS load that does not have the proper Apple signature. Apple’s signature is private and no one has asked them to reveal it to any authorities. However, there are Apple employees who have access to it, so there is a theoretical risk that an employee could leak the info, just like they could leak a version of iOS without the self-destruct feature. Thus the hypothetical non-self-destruct software doesn’t have any increased risk beyond what’s already there.
Is the following true? Apple could give the FBI an OS update for that particular iPhone, which would be rejected by every other iPhone. If this is true, I think Apple as a good citizen should give the government what they want.
I’m a huge privacy advocate, and I think strong encryption is a benefit to mankind. Corporations don’t have to make an intentionally compromised product at the whim of the NSA/FBI. But if a corporation has the ability to easily help law enforcement, and there is a warrant through a valid court (not the secret Patriot Act court), Apple should willingly do this for them. It doesn’t jeopardize my privacy to disable the self-destruct feature in the limited number of cases where there is a valid law enforcement objective, heard by a valid court.
It’s already been cited for you more than once now. If you don’t understand the court order, Tim Cook’s letter and/or the facts about the technology involved, I;m sorry but I can’t help you any more. Good luck with your specious arguments.
They certainly could reverse-engineer ios, but that’d take time - and by then, the intelligence on Farook’s phone may no longer be useful, and innocent lives may have already been lost due to Apple’s stonewalling.
And then China could… Have more time to try and guess Syed Farook’s password after they take physical possession of his phone?
What, exactly, is it that you’re afraid will happen here?
Different things. Apple’s secret key allows them to create software that you can verify came from Apple and only Apple. What Apple is saying is that there is no master key that allows them to decrypt any iPhone.
Language is simply the aggregation of 26 letters into various groups, but that doesn’t mean I can write a great sequel to The Sun Also Rises.
There is a strong distinction between the administrative task of tracing a phone – which involves simply providing data that already exists – and creating a new module, a new piece of software.
Sure, and John Williams can write another stirring movie score any time he wants.
The government can subpoena any of Williams’ existing movie sheet music. It cannot order him to write a new one. Even though he could do it any time he wanted.
I understand the court order. Tim Cook understands the court order too, and he’s assuming that Apple’s customers don’t. Apple is afraid sales will drop if people think there’s a “backdoor” that can be used to “hack” their phones, and he’s pandering to people who won’t read the court order and don’t understand that what they’re being asked to do is of absolutely no risk to them.
I gather the FBI hasn’t asked Apple to hack the phone themselves because Apple could leak the info out of spite, or even alter the content.
I think the FBI is also not wanting to show evidence that they’re capable of hacking iPhones themselves, because their motives have been suspect from the moment they were a wet spot in J. Edgar’s undershorts. They would be complicit in a crime for which they presumably exist to prevent and capture. They should have just kept this quiet instead of making a public spectacle out of it. It shows they are vulnerable, clueless, and unable to counter potential threats.
I understand that the court has ordered Apple to create an app that can be loaded into RAM via existing methods that will disable auto-erase and password fail delays, or to achieve those functions by another means.
