Apple v. DoJ–Is it really over? Spoiler alert: No.

Published on April 3, 2016 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

Everyone has probably heard that Cellebrite, an Israeli security firm helped the FBI circumvent Apple’s user enabled data encryption. Has this changed anything? Not at all.

Just as predicted, since the DoJ is involved in other ongoing cases where Apple’s help in overcoming the iOS data encryption has been “requested”, it is very likely that the Courts involved will demand details as to how that was done. When that happens, there will be (and probably has been) an effort made to replicate the tool (by the black hats – for sale to other hackers) and efforts by Apple to strengthen the code protecting the area/areas of exploit. Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy.

If this were limited to the DoJ…but it isn’t. There are local/state agencies requesting that help from the FBI, and the FBI sent these agencies (Reuters revealed this past Friday) a memo in which the FBI said it would share the tool “consistent with our legal and policy restraints”. As this spreads, it will become more and more common knowledge, and will become ineffective as Apple patches it.

“The FBI would need to resign itself to the fact that such an exploit would only be viable for a few months, if released to other departments,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent forensics expert who has helped police get into many devices. “It would be a temporary Vegas jackpot that would quickly get squandered on the case backlog.” – Venturebeat

That’s exactly the cycle that already exists with malware of ALL varieties…and in nature with living organisms. It’s called Evolution, even if the tool is NOT shared. These kind of flaws are termed “Zero day”, and even if not exploited, they come to light over time, and are patched as a matter of course. This wouldn’t happen if strong code was written from the get go: Not just Apple, but everywhere code is used. Maybe.

As usual, it’s largely about need and perception, convincing consumers you’re on their side (i.e. salesmanship) and taking advantage of it.

So, when will we write better code for the human OS?

Source:

http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/03/fbi-trick-for-breaking-into-iphone-likely-to-leak-limiting-its-use/

Comments

DaveRI

on Apr 03, 2016

So, when will we write better code for the human OS?

I'm afraid that would likely involve a really big "Cold Boot" (as in "Full System Restart").

Uvah

on Apr 03, 2016

"Start from scratch" as it were.

DivineWrath

on Apr 04, 2016

It doesn't really matter to an extent. Even if this court case was magically solved, and every American government agency got as much access to protected devices as they wanted to the full extent of the law, the terrorists or anyone else could use software based outside the US which does not fall under the law that allows them to force companies to cooperate. Open source software can be pretty hard to control too.

Also the iPhone hack only matters if the terrorists opt to use iPhones or keep sensitive information on them. This has been a rather public court case so I have little doubt that they are already thinking about it.

Also, I worry about what happens to everyone else. A back door key can be stolen or discovered. Bad things can happen when someone else can get a hold of your data or control your device. People have been discriminated against because of stuff like race or sexual orientation. People have been black mailed. Even young girls have been coerced into revealing nude photos. Stuff like ransomware will try to deny you access to your own data.

Daiwa

on Apr 04, 2016

Effective encryption has been what's attracted them (bad guys) to the iPhone (so far), though it was the County's phone in this case. Bit of a catch-22.

DMF

on Apr 05, 2016

The FBI has no idea whether there's anything on the phone or not. It's a fishing expedition.

And apparently the bad guys are not relying on phone security at all. The Brussels mob used/uses untraceable burners. The only records left on them are of to calls to other untraceable burners.

alaknebs

on Apr 06, 2016

in other news. north fantasyland courts has ordered the fruity company to unlock an iphone belonging to an alleged terrorist. what they didn't tell you is that NF agents stole the iphone off a defense minister of some western country.

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