Apple wants to use encryptions to make “stingray” phone spying tools obsolete. The move is likely to be controversial because while these are used by criminals they are also employed by police.
In a campaign called “Fix it Already!,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging tech giants to remedy nine security and privacy problems in their products.
In Apple’s case, it wants the iPhone maker to encrypt iCloud backups so that only users can access them.
James Comey is an controversial figure. His new book shows he’s strongly opposed to Donald Trump, but he may have also helped get Trump elected President. And the former FBI director is opposed to the encryption that protects the privacy of iPhone users.
Comey’ s book, A Higher Loyalty, says Apple’s decision to encrypt the contents of iOS devices by default “drove me crazy.”
Apple has another iPhone-unlocking conundrum on its hands! This time the request reportedly comes from Russian and Turkish authorities, who want Apple to help bypass the PIN code on an iPhone 4s recovered at the scene of the recent murder of Andrei Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey.
There are plenty of opposing views about how Apple should handle the FBI’s demand to create a backdoor to unlock a dead terrorist’s iPhone.
One idea we haven’t heard before, however, is a concept put forward by former Apple CEO John Sculley: Cupertino could help provide the desired information, but Apple (not the government) could be in charge of reading the messages.
Big tech companies might be supporting Apple’s pro-privacy stance when it comes to creating a backdoor for the iPhone, but not everyone is in complete agreement.
Specifically, the family of British soldier Lee Rigby — who was murdered by Islamic extremists in 2013 — has spoken out about Apple’s decision to refuse a court order to break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Rigby’s family says Apple’s stance is “protecting a murderer’s privacy at the cost of public safety.”
Donald Trump has slammed Apple for its refusal to unlock gunman Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c after being requested to do so by the FBI.
“Who do [Apple] think they are? They have to open it up,” Trump told Fox and Friends when asked about Apple’s responsibility to help with the investigation following the attack in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14 people.
In December 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook shot up an office party in an apparent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. He may have coordinated the attack on an iPhone 5c.
Since then, authorities have been trying to decrypt the device. And now, a U.S. magistrate is trying to force Apple to unlock it.
Apple is a fierce defender of its customers’ privacy, which is why every iPhone and iPad has its data encrypted by default. But according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Apple and CEO Tim Cook should show their bellies and let Congress decide whether encrypted data should be accessible through backdoors by government agencies.
User privacy has been a massive focus for Tim Cook during his time as CEO at Apple, but it’s apparently not an area of much concern for North Korea’s OS X ripoff RedStar OS.
The operating system, which borrows Apple’s “look and feel” but little else, is basically the “wet dream of a surveillance state dictator,” according to security researchers who analyzed RedStar OS.
