Ramblings of an old Doc

 

Tim Cook, is saying “No!”, in thunder to the DoJ.

But…”What if there’s info in there that would help catch terrorists?” That “What if” that makes us decide for ourselves the answer to Ben Franklin’s statement. Tim Cook said “No.” to the Justice Department’s Order to assist the FBI extract data from the San Bernadino terrorist’s phone. Wanna know something? He was right to do so.

Why? Well, for one thing, does it occur to anyone that the FBI has the terrorist’s fingerprint? So, why can’t they unlock the phone? Does it occur to anyone the government has super Cray computers which could have unlocked that phone? Why do they want the backdoor which they’ve wanted for a year at least? Why are they saying this is a “once only” when it clearly is not?

The FBI says it would be a “one time”, and that your device’s security wouldn’t be compromised. Security experts disagree: THEY say it will. Guess who I believe? Why should anyone believe that “one time” nonsense? The NSA collected your data illegally for years. Now? Congress has made it legal. Trust them to take your rights without a fight.

From the moment the FBI was created, J. Edgar Hoover collected dirt on everyone and used it to blackmail Presidents and Congresses and Courts. You think anything has changed? They’ve only gotten better at it, and justifying it because they know they’re dealing with sheep (sorry, Jim). The government has violated your rights with impunity, and poo-poo it, and they’ve done it for years…and will continue to do so.

So, if they can unlock the phone (does anyone really believe they can’t?), why ask a Court for an order? Because they want it “legally” (who doesn’t love a farce?), and more than ANYTHING, they want a PRECEDENT. That is what they MUST NOT obtain. The Bill of Rights stands as an integrated whole. The First, Second and Fifth Amendments most definitely depend upon the Fourth Amendment, and “What if” is Not sufficient reason to violate anyone’s privacy, just as “We want to know” isn’t, either.

The government knows it cannot justify the iPhone search with proof there actually is data there which is critical to the security of America. They are acting out of “What if?”. Well, that’s called a “fishing expedition”. It is inadequate reason for a Federal Judge to grant a search warrant. The Court Order was a serious breach of every citizen’s right to privacy and unreasonable search and seizure. Judges guard the Fourth Amendment jealously. They’d better, because the FBI would be looking at their phones with any imaginary “what if” they could dream up. Not just the FBI: Every local Police Dep’t. could “justify” such a search in a similar manner. Where is the boundary?

“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” – B. Franklin. Well, The EFF and ACLU, Google, Twitter and Facebook are standing with Apple on this. Shaping up to be an epic fight. I hope “We the People” win. “Backdoors” weaken security. They do not strengthen it. If a backdoor exists, ANYONE can exploit it, and will. The CIA has been trying to break into iPhones for years without success. You can bet the FSB and others have, as well.

So, Tim Cook is vowing to fight the DoJ’s Magistrate’s Order all the way to the Supreme Court. So would I: At best? There’ll be a tie, and no way to resolve it. Fitting in a karmic way.

Source:

http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/18/fbi-apple-iphone-explainer/


Comments (Page 14)
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on Mar 29, 2016

LOL ....

Pretty much sums up the entire password bullshit...

on Mar 29, 2016

....though on second thoughts there would have been the response...

"Sorry, alpha-numeric only, no apostrophe or other characters."

on Mar 29, 2016

mrblondini

"Sorry, you cannot use that password as you must use additional letters."

"OK, 1Fuckingprettyroseshovedupyourassifyoudon'tgivemeaccessrightfuckingnow"

"Sorry, you cannot use that password as it is already being used"

Absolutely love it... possibly the best 'support' joke I've heard/read in a long, long while.

Oh, and the cleaning bill for the spray of tea that covered my screen, keyboard and speakers... um, that's in the mail... Oz dollars preferable.

on Mar 29, 2016

Sadly, password jokes aren't really necessary, passwords are already a joke to begin with...

 

1234 is pushing it, but for anything being hacked over the internet, you can use a six letter word, all lower case, and you're pretty much uncrackable.  These worthless brute force cracking time generators all over the internet that tell you such things will be cracked in seconds are all assuming a locally run program that magically has no delay while it waits to see if the password was correct.  If the hackers already have local access to the system, your password isn't the problem, and odds are even with local access, as long as your password isn't password, you'll be fine.

 

In the real world, where people have pings, the few nanoseconds a computer needs for each try are then added to the few hundred milliseconds of ping you typically have on whatever shitty web portal they're trying to log into, with however long it takes for the over utilized login server to get back to you.  My easy 10 letter all lowercase password gets rated anywhere from an hour to half a day, when in reality it's hundreds of years in such an environment, and if someone takes the time to crack that, I think they deserve to get into a forum or spam email account.  My current contracting work on the other hand requires 14 digit passwords that change every 90 days and require capitalization and numbers, to access systems already behind a several second interval randomized access code, both with a three try lockout.

 

In such an environment, password and 1234 are basically the only passwords you shouldn't use.

on Mar 30, 2016

psychoak

In such an environment, password and 1234 are basically the only passwords you shouldn't use.

...and 'qwerty' ...

on Mar 30, 2016

or Dvorak.

on Mar 30, 2016

Dvorak isn't likely to be a top 3 though, and after that your account is locked out.

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