FBI asks Apple to hack iPhones from San Bernadino attacks

[Forever_frost]

so what you are telling me is once a back door is created it cannot closed/deleted.

And yes it lets those who are up to no good know that they can use Apple products to communicate without reproach.

We will have to agree to disagree. I personally have no problem under certain circumstances like terrorist activity providing information on a phone.

I imagine you let officers search your cars and house without warrant/reason as well just because you're not breaking any laws as well don't you?

[Forever_frost]

So the govt is going to all the sudden have tons of info with the unlocking the phone? Give me a break. If they don't know it already, the phone won't tell them anymore.

This. All of this.

[Rick Modena]

I'm with the government on this one... you know if your not doing anything wrong, well...

[Machx2]

I call b.s. that apple doesn't already have a way into their phones.

[lowthreeohz]

This. All of this.

I believe they're looking to decrypt messages that were sent over a third party app that is installed on the phone. If that's the case, the provider has no idea of the contents of the transmitted data other than its a jumble of 1s and 0s. Where do you think this data exists elsewhere? Why would the govt engage Apple if they had the means elsewhere to know what was transmitted?

[Forever_frost]

I believe they're looking to decrypt messages that were sent over a third party app that is installed on the phone. If that's the case, the provider has no idea of the contents of the transmitted data other than its a jumble of 1s and 0s. Where do you think this data exists elsewhere? Why would the govt engage Apple if they had the means elsewhere to know what was transmitted?

Why do they want the ability to brute force the OS instead of handing the phone over to Apple?

[lowthreeohz]

Not sure if that was sarcasm or not, but apple has no means of doing anything with the encryption just like the fbi. Gov wants a cut of ios code that allows them to make unlimited attempts to unlock the phone (brute force attack) without triggering the 'self destruct' mechanism. if they can unlock the phone, they can read the messages sent from the phone, without needing to 'own' the decryption key.

[abecx]

http://gizmodo.com/hospital-pays-17-000-ransom-to-reclaim-its-files-1759802997

Microsoft should write back doors into their code to fix this!!! You have nothing to hide!!

[jammeejamm]

i did not see this posted, but i heard the news, maybe 1080, say this iphone they want in to is his work phone that belonged to the county. would he really use it for contacting others involved?

this attempt just makes the fbi look weak and petty to try to get what they have wanted for some time now under the guise of our nation's safety. if this was really for security, the the director himself should meet with cook and hand the phone and ask for help. "just get us the info, that is all we need." and say thank you if he does. this bow down shit is getting old.

[Forever_frost]

Yes, the feds can hack your iPhone. No, it isn’t easy.
By Matthew Gault
February 18, 2016

Tags: Apple | CIA | fbi | Hillary Clinton | intelligence agency | iphone | iPhone 5C | national security agency | San Bernardino | Syed Farook | tim cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple event in San Francisco, California March 9, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS)

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook speaks during an Apple event in San Francisco, California, March 9, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith



The FBI wants Apple to give it the tools to break into the iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook. In a brave display on the company home page, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook refused. He was right to say no. If the Feds really wanted to, they have the skills necessary to break into that phone. This fight isn’t about gathering information on a terrorist. It’s about setting a legal precedent.

That the FBI chose to push this issue with the San Bernardino case is telling. Few Americans, they are betting, care about Farook’s privacy. They must believe the public — and the courts — will support them here.

Cook said that Apple has helped the FBI during every step of its investigation. It has turned over all iPhone data that Farook backed up to the cloud. But the Feds want to access his phone and make sure they didn’t miss anything. To do this, they want Apple to build a backdoor into its own operating system.
Tashfeen Malik, (L), and Syed Farook are pictured passing through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in this July 27, 2014 handout photo obtained by Reuters December 8, 2015. U.S.-born Farook, 28, and his spouse, Malik, a native of Pakistan who lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years, died in a shootout with police hours after a December 2, 2015 attack on a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in San Bernardino, California about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles. REUTERS/US Customs and Border Protection/Handout via Reuters THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Tashfeen Malik (L) and Syed Farook at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, July 27, 2014. REUTERS/U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Handout via Reuters

Apple’s iPhone, particularly the newer models, has sophisticated encryption technology, triggered by a PIN. Two specific security features make these smartphones particularly nasty to break into.

Cryptographic brute-force has long been one method of cracking any password. The hacker runs a program that spams every possible password combination at the encrypted device until it opens. Apple’s phones use either a four- or six-digit PIN. The four-digit PIN only allows for 9,999 different password combinations. The cracking program could run through those combinations in seconds.

The six-digit PIN allows for a million combinations, and is only available on iPhones running the iOS 9 operating system and above. Farook’s phone runs iOS 9. Still, a computer could run through all the possible combinations in less than a minute and break into the device — if it weren’t an iPhone.

Apple’s smartphones require users to enter passwords manually. That takes time. Worse for the would-be hacker is that the phone punishes you for failure. As any iPhone user who’s struggled to enter their PIN one-handed while, for example, walking along and chatting with a friend, knows, if you fail to enter your password too many times, the phone locks you out for a minute.

The phone is programmed so that the lock-out time increases after multiple failures. Six failed attempts pushes the lock-out time to five minutes. After the ninth failed attempt, users have to wait an hour before they can try again.
An iPhone 6 phone is seen on display at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on the first day of sales in Manhattan, New York September 19, 2014. Apple Inc's latest phone lured throngs of gadget lovers, entrepreneurs and early adapters to its stores in New York, San Francisco and other cities around the world in the latest sign of strong initial demand for the new, larger generation of iPhones. REUTERS/Adrees Latif (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TELECOMS)

An iPhone 6 phone on display at the Fifth Avenue Apple store on the first day of sales in Manhattan, New York, September 19, 2014. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

After the 10th failed attempt, the phone erases all its data. Meaning the cryptographic brute-force method just doesn’t work on iPhones, if you don’t manage to get lucky in the early going.

Data encryption has come a long way in the past five years. One reason is tech giants such as Apple and Google now issue over-the-air updates to patch security issues in real time. When a tech company finds a flaw in its software, it pushes out an update as soon as possible to plug the hole.

The FBI is now asking Apple to create a special operating system that can be sent to Farook’s phone either locally or by over-the-air delivery, and then used to bypass Apple’s time delay and system wipe. This would allow federal agents to guess at the password as many times as they want.

What the Feds have requested is possible with Farook’s older model iPhone 5C. On these phones, the operating system runs the security features and Apple could manipulate it through an update.

The FBI says it is asking for this new tool just to breach the phone of one terrorist. But both Apple and many security experts recognize that the specialized operating system could be used as a backdoor into any older model iPhone on the planet.

This backdoor would not work on newer iPhones, however. There, security features live on a separate computer within the phone, called the secure enclave. And the secure enclave is just that — secure. Manipulating the phone’s operating system will not help would-be crackers break in.

The use of a secure enclave is part of an advanced, smart design trend in encryption. It makes products so secure that even the manufacturer can’t bust into them. Yet some experts speculated that Apple may have left the iPhone’s enclave open for updates — and federal manipulation.

Washington, however, has other methods of extracting data from phones that don’t require passwords. The CIA, the National Security Agency and the FBI have been working on invasive and non-invasive methods of data extraction for more than a decade. Many security experts believe the intelligence agencies have devised unique solutions to problems just like the San Bernardino phone.

It’s possible, of course, for authorities to physically open the phone, pull out the computer chips and bombard them with lasers or radio frequencies to get at the information they need. But experts aren’t sure how much — if any — data would be lost in the process.

But this San Bernardino case isn’t about getting information off of a shooter’s phone. It’s about setting a legal precedent.

Cook and Apple are in a tricky position. One where Washington thinks that the American public will read the tech giant’s push-back as an endorsement of terrorism. Apple is betting the public and the courts are smarter than that.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/02/17/the-fbi-wants-to-set-a-legal-precedent-not-break-into-an-iphone/?utm_source=facebook

[A_A_G]

"Cook said that Apple has helped the FBI during every step of its investigation. It has turned over all iPhone data that Farook backed up to the cloud."

If you still agree that Apple should give into their demands, you are a fucking idiot.

[Chili]

Apple is betting the public and the courts are smarter than that.

Unfortunately, as evidenced by this thread and the current ruling, many are not.

[Forever_frost]

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-ill-decrypt-san-bernardino-phone-for-free-2016-2

Cybersecurity expert John McAfee is running for president in the US as a member of the Libertarian Party. This is an op-ed article he wrote and gave us permission to run.

Using an obscure law, written in 1789 — the All Writs Act — the US government has ordered Apple to place a back door into its iOS software so the FBI can decrypt information on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

It has finally come to this. After years of arguments by virtually every industry specialist that back doors will be a bigger boon to hackers and to our nation's enemies than publishing our nuclear codes and giving the keys to all of our military weapons to the Russians and the Chinese, our government has chosen, once again, not to listen to the minds that have created the glue that holds this world together.

This is a black day and the beginning of the end of the US as a world power. The government has ordered a disarmament of our already ancient cybersecurity and cyberdefense systems, and it is asking us to take a walk into that near horizon where cyberwar is unquestionably waiting, with nothing more than harsh words as a weapon and the hope that our enemies will take pity at our unarmed condition and treat us fairly.

Any student of world history will tell you that this is a dream. Would Hitler have stopped invading Poland if the Polish people had sweetly asked him not to do so? Those who think yes should stand strongly by Hillary Clinton’s side, whose cybersecurity platform includes negotiating with the Chinese so they will no longer launch cyberattacks against us.

The FBI, in a laughable and bizarre twist of logic, said the back door would be used only once and only in the San Bernardino case.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, replied:

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that's simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.

Tim CookAP

No matter how you slice this pie, if the government succeeds in getting this back door, it will eventually get a back door into all encryption, and our world, as we know it, is over. In spite of the FBI's claim that it would protect the back door, we all know that's impossible. There are bad apples everywhere, and there only needs to be in the US government. Then a few million dollars, some beautiful women (or men), and a yacht trip to the Caribbean might be all it takes for our enemies to have full access to our secrets.

Cook said:

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The fundamental question is this: Why can't the FBI crack the encryption on its own? It has the full resources of the best the US government can provide.

With all due respect to Tim Cook and Apple, I work with a team of the best hackers on the planet. These hackers attend Defcon in Las Vegas, and they are legends in their local hacking groups, such as HackMiami. They are all prodigies, with talents that defy normal human comprehension. About 75% are social engineers. The remainder are hardcore coders. I would eat my shoe on the Neil Cavuto show if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone. This is a pure and simple fact.

And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won't work for less than a half-million dollars a year. But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It's why we are decades behind in the cyber race.

hackersAdam Berry/Getty ImagesParticipants in the 28th Chaos Communication Congress computer-hacker conference in 2011 in Berlin.

Cyberscience is not just something you can learn. It is an innate talent. The Juilliard school of music cannot create a Mozart. A Mozart or a Bach, much like our modern hacking community, is genetically created. A room full of Stanford computer science graduates cannot compete with a true hacker without even a high-school education.

So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.

If you doubt my credentials, Google "cybersecurity legend" and see whose name is the only name that appears in the first 10 results out of more than a quarter of a million.

[DamonH]

Cybersecurity expert John McAfee is running for president

John Mcafee is a true nut job and blowhard. I think he would end up eating his shoe, except nobody will ever take him up on the attempt.

[Nash B.]

He is definitely wheels-off.