A special edition of Techno Bits due to yesterday’s court events surrounding the iPhone and Encryption:
Late yesterday, Apple released a letter to their customers, signed by CEO Tim Cook, concerning device encryption. Earlier in the day, a Federal Court, at the request of the Department of Justice, issued a technical assistance order to Apple to get them to comply. The phone belongs to a deceased person accused of shooting a number of people in an attack on a county facility in San Bernardino, California, and the iPhone 5C is locked. The FBI would like access to the locked device, presumably to determine whether the deceased was part of a terrorist cell, acting alone, or something even far more nefarious. Given the FBI’s mandate, it is not a surprise that they want access to the phone.
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While this particular request is grantable (and attacks against A7 phones and later is not), it shouldn’t be granted, because we should not be giving anyone the ability to crack a locked iPhone, because developing those tools is admitting that they should be given to any government, not just ours.
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