Apple vs. FBI

Steve Bannon says Trump could ‘drop the hammer’ on Apple

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Steve Bannon says President Donald Trump could
Steve Bannon was formerly an advisor to President Trump.
Photo: CNBC

Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart chairman and former chief strategist for Donald Trump, warns that the president will “drop the hammer” on Apple if it doesn’t work with authorities.

Bannon is referring to the current standoff regarding whether Apple should unlock iPhones used by the shooter who killed three people at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in December.

James Comey isn’t a fan of iPhone encryption

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James Comey
In his new book, James Comey says that law enforcement should have a backdoor into locked iPhones.
Photo: FBI

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.”

Congress criticizes FBI quest for iPhone ‘backdoor’

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FBI director says Feds still can't unlock iPhone in Pensacola shooting case
The FBI took some Congressional-strength flack today for wanting an iPhone backdoor for law enforcement.
Photo: Dave Newman/Flickr CC

Congress has called the FBI on the carpet for its attempt to require Apple to build a backdoor into the iPhone. A letter went out today from a bi-partisan group of representatives  accusing the law enforcement agency of over-stating difficulties in unlocked iPhones involved in crimes.

The ten congresspeople wrote that the FBI deliberately didn’t explore all the options to unlock the iPhone belonging to a mass shooter because they wanted an excuse to force Apple to modify iOS so it’s easy for law enforcement to access.

FBI seeks industry help unlocking iPhones and other devices

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FBI Director
FBI Director Christopher Wray says law enforcement should be able to access any phone.
Photo: FBI

The FBI wants the tech industry to help unlock thousands of smartphones and tablets involved in criminal cases each year.

FBI Director Christopher Wray did not single out any companies during his talk at a cybersecurity conference today. Still, Apple certainly sits at the top of his wish list.

Senator says FBI spent $900,000 to hack San Bernardino iPhone

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Proposed bill could hold tech giants more accountable for child exploitation
We may finally know how much the FBI shelled out for answers.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Ever since the FBI got inside the iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino terrorist shooter, there has been speculation over how much the hacking exercise cost the Feds.

A year later, we finally have an answer — and it’s a whole lot of cash, but maybe less than you thought it would be.

How Apple makes encryption easy and invisible

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iPhone SE encryption
iPhone SE set for biggest upgrade yet.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Do you know how many times a day you unlock your iPhone? Every time you do, you’re participating in Apple’s user-friendly encryption scheme.

Friday, the company hosted a security “deep dive” at which it shared some interesting numbers about its security measures and philosophy as well as user habits. To be honest, we’re less concerned with how Apple’s standards work than the fact that they do and will continue to. But that’s kind of the point behind the whole system — Apple designed its encryption system so that we don’t even have to think about it.

White House won’t back bill forcing tech companies to break encryption

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Having not one but two U.S. presidents in your fan base is pretty good going. Sadly, President Barack Obama is not allowed an iPhone as part of his official wardrobe and is stuck on BlackBerry. That hasn’t stopped him from openly lusting after the iPhone 6 in recent pics, though. He’s also admitted to spending hours each day on his iPad.Photo:
President Barack Obama is playing it cool when it comes to encryption.
Photo: Pete Souza/Wikipedia CC

The White House is refusing to publicly support new draft legislation that would give judges the right to force tech companies like Apple to help law enforcement break encrypted data.

The measure was put forward by Sens. Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, respectively the Republican chair and top Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Both Burr and Feinstein have been contacted by the FBI regarding a briefing on how the bureau was able to circumvent iPhone encryption on an older Apple device.

We talk iPhone 7s features and Tesla’s Model 3 on The CultCast

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Tesla
This Model 3 could have carried an Apple logo one day.
Photo: Tesla

This week on Cult of Mac’s: Rumors point to an iPhone 7s with a drastic redesign, facial recognition and the return of the glass front and back. Plus: Folks around the world line up for the Tesla Model 3; Apple is making a show about apps hosted by technology expert musician Will.i.am; why the new iPad Pro is not a notebook replacement for the masses; and, in a bizarre plot twist, Apple seeks FBI’s iPhone unlocking secrets.

Our thanks to Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small-business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. It also makes tax time a cinch. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.

Here’s how Steve Jobs answered a question about government snooping in 1981

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Apple-at-40-What-Steve-Jobs-Said-About-Computers-in-1981
Check out the hipster beard on Steve!
Photo: ABC

Apple turns 40 today and, while a lot has changed since the company’s early days, it seems that questions about government snooping have not.

ABC News today released footage from a vintage interview in which a very young Steve Jobs debates computers on a 1981 episode of Nightline.

In addition to trotting out his “bicycle for the mind” metaphor, Jobs also talks about how best to stop the government from snooping on your computer, a topic that seems very timely in the aftermath of Apple’s battle with the FBI.

Check out the Steve Jobs interview below.

‘Whackadoodles’ offered to help FBI crack iPhone

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iPhone 5c by uveX encryption
The FBI has cracked the San Bernardino iPhone, and we're starting to learn how it happened.
Photo: uveX/Pixabay

Details are emerging about how exactly the FBI managed to get into San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s device without the so-called “govtOS” it had been demanding from Apple.

ABC News has spoken to unnamed sources who have outlined the process through which the government finally cracked the stubborn encryption on the iPhone 5c. And while their statements mostly just confirm what we’ve heard before, the story takes some interesting turns.

Check out ABC’s report below.

Can FBI’s method open iPhone? Apple wants to wait and see

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Apple iPhone 6s
Apple would like to let a case in Brooklyn cool off for a bit.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The FBI aren’t the only people interested in postponing court proceedings this week — Apple just requested a hold in its ongoing case in Brooklyn over a criminal’s locked phone.

Magistrate Judge James Orenstein has already ruled in Apple’s favor, saying that the government could not compel the company to breach its own software. But the government is appealing that decision, and Apple would like to see if some recent developments in a similar case might render a new decision unnecessary.

DOJ surprises Apple with evidentiary hearing request

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Bruce Sewell
The DoJ has thrown another curveball at Apple's lawyers.
Photo: House Judiciary Committee

The Department of Justice has pulled another surprise on Apple this week by making a last minute request to turn the company’s court appearance on March 22nd with the FBI into an evidentiary hearing.

Apple lawyers told reporters this morning that they were caught-off guard by the last minute request which should have been submitted weeks ago.

Apple engineers might quit to avoid making ‘GovtOS’

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govtos
We doubt we'll see this at any WWDC keynotes. At least, we hope we won't.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Apple’s own engineers may be the company’s last line of defense if it loses its case against the FBI and receives final orders to create “GovtOS,” a less secure version of the iPhone’s mobile operating system.

In fact, some reports say that even if legal proceedings go in the government’s favor, and Apple is compelled to create the software authorities are requesting, certain employees may simply quit to avoid having to make what CEO Tim Cook has called “the software equivalent of cancer.”

Barring unemployment, some encryption engineers may have a variety of other options to stick it to the man.

Apple accuses FBI of using All Writs Act like ‘magic wand’

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Bruce Sewell
Apple's legal team has lobbed its latest response at FBI.
Photo: House Committee on the Judiciary Hearings

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell said the FBI threw “all decorum to the winds” in its latest federal court filing, but in the company’s official response today it has vowed it does not “intend to response in kind.”

The iPhone-maker says in its latest filing that the FBI’s claim that it exhausted all viable investigative alternatives is false because it improperly reset the iCloud password before consulting Apple. The company also admits that it didn’t take a public stance on privacy and encryption until the release of iOS 8.

Ex-NSA lawyer uses tacky metaphor to slam Apple

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iPhone rain by Dariusz-Sankowski
Ex-NSA counsel Stewart Baker rained on Apple at SXSW this week.
Photo: Dariusz Sanksowski/Pixabay. Licensed via CC0 1.0.

Commentary on the encryption battle between Apple and the U.S. government might have received its strangest metaphor yet.

Stewart Baker, who used to serve as a counsel for the National Security Agency, appeared on a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin this week. During the discussion, he said that Apple’s current, outspoken position in favor of privacy is a recent development and compared it to the sort of PR-driven whitewashing that Hollywood studios have used to promote actresses as “innocent” and “pure.”

“Who remembers Tim Cook before he was a virgin?” Baker said, paraphrasing composer Oscar Levant’s barb at ’60s everygirl Doris Day.

It got a little less polite from there.

Obama warns against ‘absolutist views’ on encryption

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Obama at SXSW
President Obama spoke at SXSW Interactive today.
Photo: WH.gov

President Barack Obama was in Austin, Texas, for the opening day of the South by Southwest Interactive festival, and talk turned inevitably to the current tension between law enforcement and tech companies on subjects like security and citizen privacy.

The president couldn’t comment on the specific case that has Apple and the FBI fighting over whether the government can compel a private company to provide access to a locked device (in this case, an iPhone 5c belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook). But he did provide some insight into the government’s view of the ongoing legal battle.

You can check out the whole conversation in the video below; the session starts about 39 minutes in.

Craig Federighi on why FBI’s backdoor demands are so harmful

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Hair Force One wants everyone to become a coder.
Cray-Fed says the FBI wants us to return to a world of iOS 7-level security.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s battle with the FBI, over whether it should create a backdoor to allow for the hacking of iPhones, is one of the biggest stories in tech right now.

Over the weekend, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, took to the pages of the Washington Post for an impassioned op-ed about how hard Apple works to stay ahead of criminals and terrorists who want to infiltrate its systems — and why the FBI and Justice Department’s proposed solution to the problem is so “disappointing.”

FBI will fight for iOS backdoors even if it loses to Apple

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iPhone hack
Bruce Schneier thinks the FBI isn't going to stop fighting any time soon.
Photo: Ste Smith

The FBI is unlikely to give up trying to pry its way into iPhones even if it loses the current standoff with Apple over encryption, says security expert Bruce Schneier.

Schneier, who is one of the leading experts on modern cryptography, says it is “clear that the San Bernardino case was preselected as a legal precedent case” by the bureau — despite the fact that FBI Director James Comey has claimed this is not the case (only to later contradict himself.)

Florida congressman floats stupid, anti-Apple bill

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United States Capitol by Jens Junge
All the major tech companies are under investigation.
Photo: Jens June/Pixabay

Government officials seem to be in some kind of race to see which of them can be the most indignant and/or outraged at Apple’s refusal to create security-bypassing software for its devices. And we’re pretty sure Rep. David Jolly has just won.

Jolly, who represents Florida’s 13th District, submitted a bill Wednesday that would make it illegal for any federal office to own or lease Apple products until Cupertino gives in to the FBI’s demands. And he did so because state-sponsored blacklisting of organizations that legally disagree with the government is exactly how free countries work.

Look who’s in Apple’s corner in FBI privacy fight

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iPhone rain by Dariusz Sankowski encryption 100+ organizations and individuals back Apple vs FBI
It's raining amicus briefs in California today.
Photo: Dariusz Sankowski/Pixabay

Companies and organizations have filed over a dozen amicus briefs supporting Apple in its showdown with the FBI over phone encryption. Filers include law professors, rights organizations, and some of the biggest companies in the world.

This outpouring of support is just the latest in a series of apparent victories for Apple in its fight to keep its devices secure.

U.N. backs Apple, calls encryption fundamental to freedom

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Your iPhone will always need to be recharged everyday.
Security isn't a feature, it's a right.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The United Nations is standing behind Apple in the company’s fight against the FBI over whether the federal government can compel the iPhone-maker to create a backdoor into iOS.

In a letter written in support of Apple’s case, U.N. Special Rapporteur David Kaye says that if the feds are successful, it would infringe on citizens’ right to freedom of expression.

ACLU backs Apple in FBI fight

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
Another group has come to Apple's defense in its battle with the FBI over iPhone security.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief today supporting Apple in its clash with the government.

The organization argues that the FBI’s demands that the iPhone maker create software that will allow investigators to bypass built-in security features represent an overreach of authority that will leave hundreds of millions of users vulnerable to cyberattacks. It becomes the latest organization to join the debate that has put security and privacy at odds.

FBI fails to make its encryption case to Congress

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iPhone 5c by uveX encryption
San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5c may not be running "GovtOS" anytime soon.
Photo: uveX/Pixabay

In a Congressional hearing today that included both Apple’s chief attorney and government officials, FBI head James Comey didn’t win many people over to his side.

The meeting allowed both sides to make their arguments for and against Apple creating a less secure version of the iPhone’s operating system that would allow officials to get by the password lock on a dead terrorist’s phone. And things seemed to go squarely in the company’s favor, although it was not without its caveats.

Watch Apple’s House Judiciary Committee appearance right here

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Apple's General Counsel, Bruce Sewell.
Apple's General Counsel, Bruce Sewell.
Photo: 60 Minutes

Apple’s top lawyer is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee today to discuss balancing Americans’ security and privacy, in light of the company’s ongoing battle with the FBI, which has demanded the company unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone.

Apple gave us a glimpse of general counsel Bruce Sewell’s opening remarks yesterday. Apple’s lawyer will ask congressional representatives some tough questions on privacy, but we won’t know what the committee thinks until the hearing gets underway later this morning. A livestream of the event will be available on YouTube when the hearing starts at 10 a.m. Pacific.

You can watch it below: