Cook announced last night that his company would not comply with a US court order to help the FBI unlock an iPhone that was owned by one of the shooters in last year’s massacre in San Bernardino, California.
However the Tame Apple press has missed something here. The court order did not ask Apple to break any encryption or put in any back doors it simply asked Apple to help in a brute force attack on the phone.
Cook equated this order as mandating a backdoor to the iPhone’s security and said it was too dangerous for Apple’s user base and stuck his fingers in his ears and shouted lah lah lah. The fruity cargo cult is appealing.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted the company’s stance during an interview on Fox News Wednesday morning. It is not often we would agree with Trump, but he does have a point here even though he does not appear to be that coherent.
“To think that Apple won’t allow us to get into her mobile phone? Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it. I agree 100% with the courts. In that case, we should open it up. I think security overall — we have to open it up. And we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense. Somebody the other day called me a “common-sense conservative.” We have to use common sense. Our country has so many problems.”
The FBI has had the shooter’s iPhone for two months. It can’t access it because it is passcode protected and entering in more than 10 incorrect passcodes will automatically wipe the data from the device. The agency argues that it needs to have access to the phone’s contacts so it can learn about potential contacts between the shooter and other ISIS recruits both at home and abroad.
Cook trotted out the same line that creating a system to bypass the iPhone’s passcode protection would have far-reaching implications that go well beyond this one particular case.
“The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone,” Cook said. “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.”
However at no point did he courts of the FBI ask for that. They just want help hacking an iPhone and Apple should be the expert on that. Although given that iPhones tend to fall at the first hurdle of hacker conferences someone must have an idea.
