Tim Cook doubled down on his privacy position this morning, refusing to give in to the FBI’s demands to create an iOS backdoor so the bureau can unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.
In an email to employees with the subject line “Thank you for your support,” the Apple CEO says the company’s battle is about much more than a single iPhone or single investigation.
Tim Cook sent out an email to all Apple employees this morning, thanking them for their support and outlining the reasons why the FBI’s court order needs to be dropped.
“This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government’s order we knew we had to speak out,” Cook wrote. “At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people, and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties.”
The director of the FBI has written an impassioned open letter to Apple, asking it to go along with the recent court order to unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooting investigation.
James Comey writes that the FBI, “isn’t about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice.”
Check out the rest of his open letter below:
Tim Cook sparked an internet controversy when he penned his open letter to Apple customers about why the tech giant was pushing back against a court order to create an FBI-friendly version of its iOS software.
Find out more about Apple’s epic battle over iPhone encryption, along with how to unlock your iPhones secret emoticons, 10 hard drive space-saving tips, the best news and RSS apps for your iOS devices, and a bit about John McAfee’s bid to hack the iPhone for the FBI.
All that and much more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine. Here are the top stories this week.
It’s been a crazy day for news in the case of Apple v. the federal government in the battle over the data contained on a mass-shooter’s iPhone, and some surprising facts are emerging between the two side’s shots at each other.
Today, we saw the Justice Department double down on the original court order, some predictable antics from presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Apple’s responses to both. But we’re also picking up some interesting details that make this already complicated issue even murkier. And things aren’t quite as simple as either side is claiming.
Here are some of the most surprising aspects of this case that have come out in the past few days.
Apple’s fight against the FBI continues to dominate headlines, with the company standing firm to protect its beliefs and the privacy of its users. But should it really be doing more to help law enforcement agencies?
No one who uses Apple products wants it to compromise the security of iOS by creating dangerous backdoors, but should it be working to find a safer solution that would provide the FBI with information when it’s needed?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over this hot topic — and be sure to weigh in at the end with your opinion!
Apple is planning to fight the FBI’s terror probe by invoking the right of free-speech and they’ve hired the most legendary free-speech lawyer in the country to help them win.
Theodore Olson, famous for successfully arguing before the Supreme Court that money is a form of free speech in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, is joining Apple’s fight against the FBI’s order to build a backdoor into San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c.
When it comes to hacking the iPhone, it’s hard to find anyone with more experience breaking into Apple’s software than Will Strafach, aka Chronic.
The legendary hacker has spent years reverse engineering each version of iOS to give jailbreakers full control of the iPhone and he’s got some very important insight into the FBI’s demands that Apple hack the iPhone.
Mainly, don’t do it!
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.
Cybersecurity legend John McAfee has sided with Apple in the company’s fight against the FBI over creating a backdoor to access the San Bernardino shooter’s locked iPhone 5c.
But just because McAfee thinks Apple shouldn’t unlock the smartphone doesn’t mean he thinks he shouldn’t do it.
In an open letter regarding Tim Cook’s decision to deny the FBI request, McAfee has offered up the services of his team of superhero hackers to unlock the iPhone — and he says it will only take them three weeks.
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.”
Google and Apple don’t always see eye-to-eye, but in the matter of encryption, they’re total allies.
Today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai today tweeted words of support to Apple in the aftermath of Tim Cook’s open letter, explaining why Apple was defying a federal order to provide backdoor access to a terrorism suspect’s iPhone 5c.
Internet privacy activist and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has come out in favor of Tim Cook’s decision to deny a federal court judge’s request that Apple help the FBI hack the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone 5c.
Snowden is calling Apple’s battle over security the most important tech case in a decade, and has called out Google for not coming to the public’s side on the issue. In a series of tweets expounding on the issues, Snowden said the FBI’s efforts to force Apple to give them a key bypasses citizen’s ability to defend their rights.
A federal judge has ordered Apple to comply with the FBI’s demands to unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone 5c. Apple CEO Tim Cook has boldly and politely refused. However, his reason has nothing to do with whether Apple has the ability to hack the iPhone.
It simply doesn’t want to.
Apple has spent the past few years making its devices more secure by adding Touch ID and a secure element. The iPhone 5c doesn’t have Touch ID, though, so the FBI wants to brute-force unlock it by guessing the terrorist’s PIN. The problem is, iOS will automatically wipe the device after too many unsuccessful attempts — and iOS also delays how often you can guess a passcode. So the FBI created a plan for how Apple can help the bureau get around it.
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.
The case involving San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c and whether Apple should help unlock it has brought the company’s stance regarding strong encryption to the forefront.
Since this privacy-versus-security debate isn’t going away anytime soon, here’s what you need to know about it so far — and why it’s a much, much bigger issue than just one legal case.
Apple has posted an open letter, signed by Tim Cook, in response to the FBI’s request that Apple unlock the iPhone at the center of a San Bernardino court case.
While United States magistrated judge Sheri Pym wants Apple to hand the FBI a custom firmware file that would allow the unlocking of the handset in question, Apple argues that this represents an, “unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.”
And Cook wants the public to be aware of all the details.
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.
The F.B.I. and Department of Justice are so concerned about Apple’s pro-privacy iOS encryption that senior officials advocated taking Apple to court over the issue, according to a new report.
There’s just no getting around it: FBI director James Comey isn’t a fan of encryption.
In an open letter, Comey writes that the kind of security seen on devices like the iPhone do more to hurt us than they do to help — potentially even aiding terrorist groups such as ISIS.
“I really am not a maniac (or at least my family says so),” he claims. “But my job is to try to keep people safe. In universal strong encryption, I see something that is with us already and growing every day that will inexorably affect my ability to do that job.”
Almost everyone is happy about iOS 8’s recent privacy upgrade, which means that Apple can’t unlock your phone as part of an investigation. Almost everyone, that is, except for the FBI.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, FBI director James Comey described himself as “very concerned” by steps tech companies like Apple are taking to strengthen privacy on mobile devices.
“I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no one in this country is beyond the law,” Comey said. “What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves above the law.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation needs to hire more hackers — and that means changing the rules about how much pot you can smoke on the job.
“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” FBI Director James B. Comey told the Wall Street Journal.
Today the story broke about PRISM, a supposedly top-secret program at the US National Security Agency (NSA) that has been in operation since 2007.
According to The Washington Post, current intelligence reporting increasingly relies on PRISM as its main source of raw data and is used in almost 1 out of every 7 intelligence reports these days.
Here’s the basic breakdown of what’s happening so far in the story, who’s involved, what’s being looked at, and more.
There’s a belief that Apple makes new engineers work on fake products until they can be trusted. According one of the company’s former employees, Adam Lashinsky, who published the book Inside Apple last January, the Cupertino company hires people into so-called “dummy positions” until it’s confident that they can be a part of upcoming products without leaking information.
But how accurate are those claims? We know Apple takes secrecy very seriously, but would it really waste time and money on giving people fake projects just to ensure they won’t squeal?
Almost certainly not.
First, AntiSec leaked a ton of iPhone and iPad UDIDs to the public, claiming they hacked them off an FBI laptop. The FBI responded and said there was no way the UDIDs came from them. Then Apple jumped in and said that they totally didn’t give anyone 12million UDIDs. But 12million UDIDs were still leaked and people are still wondering how the heck AntiSec got them.
A few theories have been bouncing around the web this morning, but the most plausible theory of how AntiSec got all the UDIDs is that a network of free apps were keeping track of UDIDs and AntiSec hacked them off the publisher’s laptop.
