This is so stupid and has been pissing me off because my friends have been bugging me about it and
had no idea how the whole thing works.
It's not really a serious backdoor. It's a
software update that can be placed in the phone's memory, and will cause that singular phone to update its OS very slightly. The changes? Allow password guesses to be input electronically, disable deletion of data after ten failed guesses, and disable an automatic
pause after each failed guess. Yes, it's bad, but it isn't a massive security hole put into every IPhone. It doesn't disable security--it just means you have to not be a braindead idiot and use a half decent password if you care about security. The
only serious problem with it, IMO, is that it's a legal
order, not a request, and if it gets taken to court and decided in favor of the FBI, it'll almost certainly be used as precedent for forcing tech companies to make
actually significant security holes. Because judges don't understand how digital security works and will think this apple is the same thing as that orangutan.
Apple
could make the software only work with that particular phone. The FBI could probably break the restriction easily, and make it work with any phone. The FBI could probably also just make the software themselves, though they'd have to steal data from Apple to do so. It's just cheaper, faster, and safer to have Apple do it.
Also, there's a decent chance the delete after ten tries setting isn't even on. And there's probably not even anything particularly valuable on the phone itself. And the FBI
should have been capable of getting the data off this particular phone using the icloud, but
somebody "accidentally" did something stupid after they got the phone and disabled that function.
Also, according to Apple, the FBI has tons of IPhones they've asked Apple to hack before this.
This one is the one that they decided to make a stand on. Presumably because it's a terrorist's phone, so they can get public support.
It is not a (significant) backdoor. It is not a protocol. It is not a skeleton key. It is not otherwise impossible to make. It is not even
important, except as legal precedent.
And
by god the FBI isn't asking Apple to
"break their encryption". Nobody said that here, but I've been hearing it so often that it just needs to be denied preemptively.
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Topic: Murrican Politics Megathread 2016: There Will Be Hell Toupée (Read 1572868 times)