Did The FBI Just Unleash A Hacker Army On Apple?

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I think it is more like Apple unleashed an army of hackers on itself. You know this story has some merit, even John McAfee came crawling out from under his rock to try to grab some of the "I can hack that phone" spotlight.


“The attention that’s been drawn to this issue, by the litigation and by the controversy that’s surrounded it, has stimulated a marketplace of creative people all around the world to try and come up with ideas,” Comey said. “Lots of folks have come to us with potential ideas.” And why wouldn’t they? One of the world’s most influential technology companies had squared off against the world’s most powerful law enforcement agency. Whether those creative minds were drawn by money, the potential for future business—in the United States or abroad—or just the sheer challenge, they apparently came calling.
 
I said it before: Apple can only hurt themselves by not controlling the situation. They could have opened the phone for the FBI on Apple's terms but they chose to play hardball and protect the privacy of terrorists over protecting the public from violent criminals. Now they have lost control of their o/s...
 
I've met a few people who work on the "jailbreaks" for iOS. These guys are very cleaver. They'v been exploiting security flaws in iOS since day 1. I would not be surprised if these guys could have "cracked" the phone.
I'm glad Apple stood their ground (even though the FBI still got what they wanted). Next, I hope Apple cranks up the security and tries to make a future OS tougher, if not impossible, to exploit. I value privacy and think the backdoors are a terrible idea. History has shown you can't always trust the gatekeepers.
 
I said it before: Apple can only hurt themselves by not controlling the situation. They could have opened the phone for the FBI on Apple's terms but they chose to play hardball and protect the privacy of terrorists over protecting the public from violent criminals. Now they have lost control of their o/s...
No, this is how you make your phone stronger. Kind of like the immune systems of Europeans vs indigenous Americans in the 1600s. Now Apple has even more incentive to make their phone more and more secure.
 
hmm apple makes its phones more secure for the terrorists could be what the public ends up thinking.
 
Instead of just giving the data over to the phone's owner as requested, Apple just had to get the feds to subsidize a genuine exploit that Apple has no rights to learn from. Brilliant.
 
Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't. What did not happen, was Feds getting precedent set for whenever they want manufacturer unlock of secure computing devices. So still a +1 to Apple in my book.
 
protect the privacy of terrorists over protecting the public from violent criminals.
You forgot about the one part where Apples protecting the privacy of their current and future customers, the reason they stay in business. The criminals were already dead too, fyi.


a genuine exploit that Apple has no rights to learn from. Brilliant.
LOL. They won't figure it out and fix it, got it.
 
You forgot about the one part where Apples protecting the privacy of their current and future customers, the reason they stay in business. The criminals were already dead too, fyi.


LOL. They won't figure it out and fix it, got it.

So where has it come into play that this level of security has helped a regular citizen rather than hindered because they forgot their password?

The fbi owned the phone and apple didn't help them, what hope in hell do you think you have if you get locked out of your phone? But remember, it's for your security that you buy another $800 phone.
 
So where has it come into play that this level of security has helped a regular citizen rather than hindered because they forgot their password?

The fbi owned the phone and apple didn't help them, what hope in hell do you think you have if you get locked out of your phone? But remember, it's for your security that you buy another $800 phone.

Ok so now we need weaker encryption because people forget their passwords. Also what rational person would expect Apple to write a custom version of iOS to let someone unlock their own personal phone because they forgot their password?
 
So where has it come into play that this level of security has helped a regular citizen rather than hindered because they forgot their password?
Is this a real question? You might want to rethink this question. I'd assume in everyday life for millions of their users. A lot of people buy iPhones for this reason, the security and not being datamined like Google does.

what hope in hell do you think you have if you get locked out of your phone? But remember, it's for your security that you buy another $800 phone
You do realize that you can just reset the phone to new and start over, right? It's pretty straight forward. As for me needing to tell you to backup your stuff, well, you should always backup your stuff and store the data in multiple locations.
 
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I said it before: Apple can only hurt themselves by not controlling the situation. They could have opened the phone for the FBI on Apple's terms but they chose to play hardball and protect the privacy of terrorists over protecting the public from violent criminals. Now they have lost control of their o/s...

The government did not access the phone without a third party solution. The hack was obviously known prior to this case being publicized.
 
NSA had this shit figured out a long time ago. This "debate" was nothing more than a side-show. Yeah, I know, inb4 conspiracy theory, tin-foil hat etc.

After everything Snowden released, if you believe ANYTHING the FBI or intelligence agencies put out through the media for public consumption, you're at a minimum naive and/or have blinders on.
 
I've met a few people who work on the "jailbreaks" for iOS. These guys are very cleaver. They'v been exploiting security flaws in iOS since day 1. I would not be surprised if these guys could have "cracked" the phone.
I'm glad Apple stood their ground (even though the FBI still got what they wanted). Next, I hope Apple cranks up the security and tries to make a future OS tougher, if not impossible, to exploit. I value privacy and think the backdoors are a terrible idea. History has shown you can't always trust the gatekeepers.
Only Secure unexploitable OS is one that is on a computer/device that is OFF and unplugged from everything.
 
This is a stupid article. There are plenty of zero day companies that already sell exploits of iOS like Zimperium and the one that is helping the FBI.
 
Instead of just giving the data over to the phone's owner as requested, Apple just had to get the feds to subsidize a genuine exploit that Apple has no rights to learn from. Brilliant.


Excellent post. Almost every article completely failed to mention that huge fact. The county government was the owner of the phone. Not an individual. A person shouldn't expect their work phone to be private.

This case had owner permission, probable cause and a valid court order. I'm guessing that's a highly unusual trifecta.
 
I've met a few people who work on the "jailbreaks" for iOS. These guys are very cleaver. They'v been exploiting security flaws in iOS since day 1. I would not be surprised if these guys could have "cracked" the phone.
I'm glad Apple stood their ground (even though the FBI still got what they wanted). Next, I hope Apple cranks up the security and tries to make a future OS tougher, if not impossible, to exploit. I value privacy and think the backdoors are a terrible idea. History has shown you can't always trust the gatekeepers.

I agree. I think this whole event may inspire greater efforts to ensure customer privacy. Arguably, this is exactly how our economy is supposed to work; as the market discovers your product isn't as stellar as you claim, you are forced to make it more stellar, charge less, or get out of the way of companies willing to be as great as their claims.
 
So where has it come into play that this level of security has helped a regular citizen rather than hindered because they forgot their password?

The fbi owned the phone and apple didn't help them, what hope in hell do you think you have if you get locked out of your phone? But remember, it's for your security that you buy another $800 phone.
Shoot, why not just cut out the middle man then? Let's store all communications on an NSA server and they can promise not to look at it unless you commit a crime. And if you ever lose your password they can establish a special reset button that resets it to the default, "NSAwontreadyouremailswepromise" ;)
 
Instead of just giving the data over to the phone's owner as requested, Apple just had to get the feds to subsidize a genuine exploit that Apple has no rights to learn from. Brilliant.

I actually want the operating systems attacked constantly. That is how they become robust.
 
I'm all for more secure phones! As a security professional I want less risk when some nitwit left their phone on the subway, the less likelihood you moron, tin foil hat, Will Smith Enemy of the State tards' social security information doesn't end up on PasteBin.
 
If the iPhone I'd the flavor of the day then by all means hack away.

Well be Great to see iOS & hacks/jailbreak type updates competing even more.
 
Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't. What did not happen, was Feds getting precedent set for whenever they want manufacturer unlock of secure computing devices. So still a +1 to Apple in my book.


Why do you think that? I can understand not wanting to lose your privacy, but if there is a court order, your ass is already on the line. In this case, Apple would have been up shit creek if the feds hadn't found a way to unlock the phone. I am sure Apple is still going to lose their asses on this too.
 
Computer forensic labs in the Bay area have been using Cellebrite for years to pull images from phones, when Apple, Google, or the phone carrier couldn't provide what they have asked for.
 
Why do you think that? I can understand not wanting to lose your privacy, but if there is a court order, your ass is already on the line. In this case, Apple would have been up shit creek if the feds hadn't found a way to unlock the phone. I am sure Apple is still going to lose their asses on this too.

The feds feared losing when this eventually got to the SC. Especially after public opinion failed to cement behind their cause. Which had nothing to do with that particular phone. They wanted manufacturer provided, quick, cheap, and easy access to every secure computing device. That was the precedent they wanted set. That phone, was simply the phone they thought they could use to scare enough people into giving them what they wanted.

Getting into the phone without help, was just them trying to give Apple a poke in the eye for not just playing ball, and dragging this out in court.
 
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