IT Pro Addresses iPhone Controversy — Aye of yer Apple?

By Phil Erwin

The Federal Government feuding with Apple, Inc. is a strange wrinkle in the story of national security, pitting a Liberal Administration against one of the very few Democrat darlings of Capitalism.

Apple has employed hundreds of thousands of (mostly) Liberal young people, and made many of them very rich. The company works hard to retain the approval and loyalty of both its customers and its employees. Few global companies boast the level of employee satisfaction of Apple; and most Apple customers are customers for life.

You’d think “the People’s party” wouldn’t want its Administration attacking their one corporate hero over something as mundane, as unsavory as – gasp – National Security!

Yet, the Obama Justice Department just secured a court order demanding Apple damage its products, its reputation, and its future profitability by creating a version of the iPhone software that bypasses security – just in case something on one terrorist’s cell phone might possibly lead to other terrorists.

This is a Democrat Administration? Sounds more like a John Ashcroft move. (Ashcroft was George Bush’s Bible-thumping Attorney General, hated by Liberals because he championed the Patriot Act, which they saw as curtailing Americans’ freedoms in the name of national security.)

Terrorists rely on cell phones and other “new” technologies to facilitate their activities. So of course the government wants to intercept and monitor those technologies. Which means the corporations that make those technologies are natural targets for governmental “insistence.”

So now a federal judge has ordered Apple to “help” the FBI hack into the phone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, seized some two months ago in the aftermath of the attack that killed 14.

Two months ago.

You think the FBI didn’t give it their best shot before calling on Apple?

Those two months, and the judge’s order, represent a marketing coup for Apple, clearly demonstrating that Apple’s iPhone security is pretty much unassailable. But of course, the government can’t tolerate you owning a communications device they can’t monitor.

Here come the judge.

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, refused to just hand the software “keys” to the iPhone over to the government. He pointed out that to do so would, in essence, eliminate the security guarantee that millions of iPhone owners expect and rely upon to keep their private data safe from the prying eyes of hackers and thieves.

This argument falls flat for the “hawks,” who see national security as overriding a citizen’s rights to privacy, to data security, to ownership of his/her own stuff. And the Feds promise the government won’t go after the information on your phone unless a judge has issued a warrant.

Well, maybe. But warrant or no, what the Feds are after is the software to crack your iPhone. Once they have it, you think they won’t use it whenever they want?

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Yeah. That’s what Cook thought, too. Which is why he told them to take their request and stuff-it.   Specifically, Cook responded in part:

“Once [this tool] was created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices… It would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks…” [my emphasis.]

Next, the Feds thought they’d try actually being reasonable. They decided Apple could keep the keys – they just have to use the keys on this one phone. The Justice Department told the judge:

“Apple may maintain custody of the software, destroy it after its purpose under the order has been served, refuse to disseminate it outside of Apple and make clear to the world that it does not apply to other devices or users without lawful court orders. No one outside Apple would have access to the software required by the order…”

So… force a corporation to make something that damages its own product, reputation and future profits, but at least let them maintain control of it. For the moment…

Cook’s conundrum is this: Millions currently believe the latest iPhone is unimpeachable. Apple could have made security “keys” or a “backdoor”, but it has no corporate reason for doing so, and plenty of reasons for not doing it.

But once those “keys” are known to exist, the government will of course want them. And pretty soon there will be another phone to crack, and another, and then the FBI will be revisiting the question of whom should hold those keys. Enter another judge, another order, and you’ll have Apple being forced to turn over a damaging product that they never wanted to make, and were told they would never have to relinquish.

And of course, there’s always the chance that some corporate spy or bad egg or Russian hacker or Chinese virus might get hold of those “keys” once they exist.   Admittedly a low risk; but not zero.

And if there’s one thing that Tim Cook knows for certain, it’s that he can absolutely never trust the government to keep a secret safe.

Just ask Hillary.

Legendary iPhone hacker weighs in on Apple’s war with the FBI

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Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He sometimes wishes he could support Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies, and is none too fond of Statistics. If his writing depresses you, he recommends you visit Chip Bok’s site for a more lighthearted perspective.

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