A new ongoing battle is in the making between the FBI and Apple Inc. over the FBI’s constant badgering of Apple to re-gain access to what they once had. The ability to hack your phone and read contents at will.
While the FBI or other law enforcement is to have a legal wiretap court order, often this information was ease-dropped and not used in court so nobody is the wiser without the court order. They just can’t use any information gathered in court.
At the heart of this particular issue is the FBI wanting Apple to re-code the phone to disable the 10 incorrect tries you get before pass-code failure that will lock the device and delete all data inside.
Because with the governments super-computers, they would be able to try all pass-codes until they get the correct one, perhaps in as little as hours. This method is known as a ‘brute force attack’.
The issue at it’s core is the know-how to do such a thing is not limited to just one phone and could reasonably be preformed through cellular data-on-air. without the notice of the user.
What it means for Apple’s Core…
Apple has went to great lengths to create a secure system that had business in mind to keep corporate secrets, secrete. Much as Blackberry has done for them and the government itself. If you had to worry about ‘secure today’ but ‘not tomorrow’, you might not want to make the investment for all your staff as these are pretty pricey devices.
To Apple’s credit, they have spent millions and years developing this security and now the government is saying you must spend more undoing what you did.
The government is not really loosing anything that they should have in the first place despite the fact that it can be valuable to them in fighting crime.
The problem with the governments argument is that never does the government stop at what we are told. And when anyone in the government has access to anyone’s personal information, how do you keep that from being used with or for political malice. Reading ones phone is as close as you can get to reading their mind or intentions.
And it might be also good to point out that the FBI was not trying to hack the secure encrypted BlackBerry phones owned by the chief executives of the BANKS TO BIG TO FAIL THAT DID. Hmmmmmm……. A national security issue that just about brought the nation to it’s knees and not a hacked phone when it was completely legal under the Patriot Act. Can we be assured there is not and will never be a double standard here. It’s doubtful.
The start of any checks and balances that does not presently exist would be a log every every hack or ease-drop that is public information after 2 years from the event.
If they were to tell you they want a camera in your workplace and your bedroom to help stop crime, would you give them one? A smartphone is a camera and a microphone that goes where you go along with anywhere you go on the internet. When it is possible to get into the phone by anyone, it is possible for anyone to do the same without your knowlage.
While public opinion is only relevant to the point that the government needs to have the appearance of legitimacy in the light of the Patriot Act and Edward Snowden. In which they may have today, but how do you know they will have it tomorrow. Nobody is going to announce they are changing the terms of use and even if they would, it would be to late to change what will be done.