Apple CEO Tim Cook pushes back against FBI, court order to hack iPhone

Apple’s approach to security with the iPhone 6 has landed them in hot water with the Feds. Following the terror attacks in San Bernadino last December, the FBI collected the shooter’s iPhone as evidence, and they are now trying to force Apple, via a court order, to help crack the security on the phone. Here’s the thing: Apple deliberately designed the latest iPhone to thwart just such an order.

Security measures on an iPhone 6 are in the phone itself, not on servers at Apple, so there’s no “back door” Apple can open. Additionally, the FBI says that despite all of their tech tools, it hasn’t been able to get into the phone due to Apple’s “10 tries” security step, which wipes all data from the phone automatically if someone tries – and fails – to put in the correct passcode 10 times. If that were to happen, any evidence on the phone turns to vapor.

The FBI has now served Apple with a court order to make them disable the “10 tries” security step, which would give the FBI unlimited attempts to guess the passcode, something known as a “brute force” hack. But Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a special post on Apple.com, calls any compliance with such an order a “dangerous precedent” and a betrayal of Apple’s “no backdoor access” pledge to its millions of customers.

So there it is: the Federal Government versus one of the biggest and well-funded tech companies in the world. Apple has no shortage of lawyers, of course, so this could end up being a protracted battle – or something else entirely. Leave us your thoughts on the matter below or at the linked articles.

The Atlantic is reporting that a hospital in Los Angeles has been brought to a tech standstill by hackers who are demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin to release their computer systems. The FBI is helping out on the case but in the meantime, patient records are inaccessible and the hospital has reverted to pen and paper to keep functioning.

The hospital says patient care hasn’t been compromised, but also said some patients were transferred to other facilities while they desperately try to get the situation figured out.

Alphabet, the umbrella company created by the Google guys, has spun off another letter, J, which now stands for Jigsaw.

Formerly Google Ideas, Jigsaw will be a stand-alone company whose goal will to be to bring the Internets to people suffering under oppressive regimes. They will also help protect nascent Internet journalism startups from attacks from said regimes who don’t want their dirty laundry out in public. Jared Cohen will head Jigsaw. He formerly worked with both Condeleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton when they were both Secretary of State.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1Xy7eI1
Bill Roberson