February 20, 2016

I Just Don't Know.

When I first heard about the Apple encryption story I thought that this was a really good thing Apple was doing.  For a good overview of the Apple side of the argument, JC Carlton has an extensive and link rich post on the topic


If the FBI and NSA are so inept that they can’t do simple traffic analysis on the communications or find other means to do the legwork, why has country spent hundreds of billions over decades to build up an intelligence apparatus that apparently can’t find it’s ass with both hands. And what happens to what’s left of our liberties if nothing is secure from the government?

 

Lois Lerner is FREE today, and that should end the discussion, or so I thought until I read this

  First, the government is not asking Apple to break the phone’s encryption. They are seeking to have Apple turn off an auto-erase function, which (when turned on) automatically erases all the data on an iPhone if there are ten consecutive incorrect attempts to enter the four-digit passcode. They are seeking to have Apple allow the passcodes to be entered electronically — so nobody has to manually type in every possible four-digit combination. And they are seeking to have Apple disable a feature that introduces delays of increasing length as incorrect guesses at the passcode are made.  

Now, Patrick Frey is a prosecutor and prosecutors tend to want to err on the side of getting info and not on the side of privacy, however, he is saying that the issue is NOT as is being presented in the media. 

There is also this

Apple also decided in February 2015 to store local users’ personal data in China. The move was a gesture of good will towards Beijing that other companies like Google, for example, have always rejected for "security reasons”. This is because it is easier for China to request access to personal information that is under its jurisdiction.

I honestly don't know enough about the situation or the ins and outs of the technology to know where to come down on this. I'm strongly inclined to take Apple's side ion the issue, seeing as how our government, especially THIS government cannot be trusted with people's data. The precedent would seem to be troubling to say the least.  But this was a phone known to have been used in a terrorist attack and there is a court order involved. 

Anyway, have at it in the comments.   

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 418 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Apple is certainly grandstanding by restating the request in more egregious terms, but my understanding is that they are correct in asserting they can't make the pass code security changes without having access to the passcode.

Posted by: Ben at Sun Feb 21 10:30:32 2016 (BdQxf)

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