FBI

ACLU principal technologist and Yale Law School visiting fellow Christopher Soghoian drew attention to a rather dramatic raising of the stakes in the DOJ’s latest filing in the San Bernardino iPhone case. It contains an implicit threat that if Apple isn’t willing to create the special version of iOS needed to break the passcode protection, the government could force the company to hand over both the source code and signature so that its own coders could do it instead.

For the reasons discussed above, the FBI cannot itself modify the software on Farook’s iPhone without access to the source code and Apple’s private electronic signature. The government did not seek to compel Apple to turn those over because it believed such a request would be less palatable to Apple. If Apple would prefer that
course, however, that may provide an alternative that requires less labor by Apple programmers.

It then goes on to cite a case it believes provides a precedent for this …

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Earlier today, the Department of Justice filed its latest response to Apple regarding the encryption case centered around the San Bernardino iPhone. In the filing, the FBI said that its request “invade no one’s privacy” and accused Apple of being “corrosive and false” in its rhetoric. Now, Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell has replied to the filing with some choice words…

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Will Apple stick to business as usual later this month at its press event for the new iPhone SE, Apple Watch, and Mac updates? Or will it use the very public stage to also address the ongoing FBI/San Bernardino/encryption controversy?

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As Apple’s battle with the FBI drags on, the company’s senior vice president of software and services Eddy Cue has sat down with Univision to discuss the case. In the interview, Cue echoes much of what his colleagues have said before regarding the case, including that it should be decided in Congress and several other points.

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We said yesterday that the war of words on the Apple/FBI dispute were hotting up, and Edward Snowden has now taken things a step further, suggesting that the FBI’s claims that they need Apple to access the iPhone are … not true. His comments were reported by The Intercept, which posted video of the discussion at a civil liberties conference.

“The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’” to unlock the phone, Snowden said during a discussion at Common Cause’s Blueprint for Democracy conference.

“Respectfully, that’s bullsh*t,” he said, over a video link from Moscow.

Snowden had earlier described how the FBI could physically extract the passcode from the iPhone chip, and has now linked to an explanation of how the agency could bypass the auto-erase feature …

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While an earlier public poll showed the majority of the public siding with the FBI in the dispute over whether Apple should be forced to help the government break into an iPhone, the public mood appears to be shifting. A WSJ/NBC poll shows that, overall, American voters are now almost evenly split on the issue.

Neither the WSJ nor NBC has yet released the full poll – only the results relating to the Republican primary race – but CNET has reported the numbers.

Overall, American voters are evenly divided over whether Apple should cooperate with FBI efforts to crack open a terrorist’s iPhone.

47 percent said they feared the government wouldn’t go far enough in protecting national security, while 44 percent feared it would intrude too far into citizens’ privacy.

As you’d expect, there was a significant difference in views among registered Republicans and Democrats …

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Appearing on Conan last night, Woz said that he sided with Apple in the FBI fight, first because he’s always been strong on human rights, as one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but because governments shouldn’t be able to tell manufacturers to make their products insecure at a time when security is so important.

He argued that there is absolutely no reason to think the FBI would learn anything from the iPhone in question.

They picked a lame case. They picked the lamest case you ever could […]

[For the shooters’ own phones] Verizon turned over all the phone records, all the SMS messages. So they want to take this other phone, that the two didn’t destroy, which was a work phone, and it’s so lame and worthless to expect something’s on it and get Apple to expose it.

Revealing that he had once written something that could have acted as a Macintosh virus, he said he’d thrown away every line of code because he was so scared of what might happen if the code got out …

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The implications of the FBI forcing Apple to create a compromised version of iOS to break into an iPhone could be profound, argues Lavabit – an encrypted email company that closed its service rather than comply with an FBI demand to hand over its encryption key. Company founder Ladar Levison (above) was found to be in contempt of court when he refused to hand over the key in 2013.

Lavabit is the latest of more than 40 companies and organizations to file an amicus brief in support of Apple, reports TechCrunch.

It warns that iPhone and iPad users may reject future iOS updates, which would leave security holes unplugged.

If the government is successful, however, many consumers may not be as trustful of these updates because of a fear (actual or imagined) that the updates will contain malware to provide a backdoor into the data on their iPhones. The result is that fewer people will automatically accept the automatic updates and the overall security of iPhones across the country will suffer.

But the effects of a ruling against Apple could go even further, the company suggests …

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The battle between the FBI and Apple continues to be played out in the media. On the same day that Apple SVP Craig Federighi said that the FBI wanted to create a weakness that could be used by hackers and criminals, NYPD’s head of counter-terrorism weighed in during a radio interview. The Daily News quotes John Miller accusing Apple of providing aid to murderers, among other things.

I still don’t know what made [Apple] change their minds and decide to actually design a system that made them not able to aid the police. You are actually providing aid to the kidnappers, robbers and murderers.

He cited the same quote used by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance during the Congressional hearing to support this contention, that a criminal described iOS 8 as ‘a gift from God’ …

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As part of Apple’s continuing quest to raise support for its side of the Apple/FBI iPhone encryption backdoor debate, Craig Federighi has written an opinion piece in The Washington Post. Unsurprisingly, the Apple executive repeats much of the arguments Apple has already made, indicating that hampering security efforts in technology is counterproductive:

To get around Apple’s safeguards, the FBI wants us to create a backdoor in the form of special software that bypasses passcode protections, intentionally creating a vulnerability that would let the government force its way into an iPhone. Once created, this software — which law enforcement has conceded it wants to apply to many iPhones — would become a weakness that hackers and criminals could use to wreak havoc on the privacy and personal safety of us all.

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Although tech companies are joining Apple’s camp en masse for the Apple/FBI court battle due to commence on March 22nd, there are many amicus briefs being posted in favour of the FBI’s argument. One of these was filed last Thursday night by the San Bernardino District Attorney, Michael Ramos. In the document, he claims that the shooter’s iPhone (which the FBI wants Apple to make a backdoor unlock for) could contain evidence that it is a digital weapon — containing a ‘cyber pathogen’ that would exploit San Bernardino infrastructure.

It’s the first time someone has implied what might actually be of interest on the phone. However, whilst the idea of a ‘cyber pathogen’ sounds scary, it really doesn’t make any sense. On his blog, iPhone forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski explains these terms have no technical substance and even if you read between the lines to decipher the comment, it is very difficult to get any sensible meaning whatsoever.

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Update #2: A second coalition of tech companies including Google, Microsoft Facebook, Snapchat, Mozilla, and Dropbox have also filed a joint brief this evening in support of Apple. These companies also argue that the All Writs Act does not give the government legal basis for forcing Apple to unlock the gunman’s iPhone (via Reuters). Google detailed its reasoning in a blog post:

Today, Google joined a variety of technology companies to file an amicus brief in US federal court. Together, we are voicing concern about the use of a broad statute from the 18th century, the All Writs Act, to require companies to re-engineer important security features that protect people and their data.

Update: 5 families of the San Bernardino victims have filed an amicus brief with the court asking for Apple to unlock the iPhone in question. More below.

On a new webpage dedicated to highlighting companies and organizations supporting it in its fight against the FBI, Apple today has shared a joint amicus brief from a variety of tech companies that has been filed with the court. Twitter, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Square, Reddit, and many others have signed the brief expressing support for Apple.

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A day after Apple testified before the House Judiciary Committee, a handful of privacy groups have officially filed that they support the company in its fight against the FBI. While the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has previsouly expressed its support for Apple, it today filed an amicus brief with the court, officially acknowledging its stance. Furthermore, three other privacy groups, Access Now, the Wickr Foundation, and a United Nations free speech group have also filed briefs with the court echoing the ACLU’s sentiments.

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This week Zac and Benjamin discuss everything from the FBI to the iPhone SE, new details about Apple’s upcoming March event and even a new Pokémon app. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed. Big thanks to Harry’s and Casper for sponsoring this episode.

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Bloomberg hosted a lengthy interview with Apple head lawyer Theodore Olson, to discuss the ongoing FBI vs Apple case in light of the congressional hearing from yesterday. Bloomberg’s Emily Chang quizzes Olson on various aspects of the case and although much of what is said is merely a repeat of what Tim Cook and other Apple representatives have said before, there are a few new tidbits. Olson says there isn’t a middle ground he can foresee between Apple’s staunch privacy position and the data collection wishes of the FBI. Olson was last quoted saying that if the FBI got their way, it would lead to an Orwellian society.

Watch the full fifteen-minute interview below …

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There were a few face-palm moments in yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, from committee members who appeared not to know what encryption is to Apple’s lead lawyer Bruce Sewell having to make a hasty switch from his iPad Pro to paper when the device apparently failed. (Some suggested it may simply have timed-out and auto-locked, but it’s unclear why he wouldn’t use Touch ID to let himself back in.)

Overall, though, it was a serious discussion of the issue, with each side making its points in a calm, rational manner and being subjected to many probing and intelligent questions.

It wasn’t a one-sided battle by any means. FBI Director James Comey made some solid arguments that clearly hit home. But my view is that Apple not only won on points, but also scored the knock-out blow …

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Shortly after yesterday’s Congressional hearing, Apple filed a formal objection to the court order instructing it to assist the FBI in breaking into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Apple had previously filed its mandatory response, in which it called for the court to vacate the order. This was a 65-page detailed document setting out the reasons the company believed the order should not have been granted. The document filed yesterday was rather shorter …

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Apple has been in Washington D.C. today testifying before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the San Bernardino case. General Counsel Bruce Sewell is representing Apple during the hearing and has fielded a wide range of questions so far. One notable question, however, came from Louisiana representative Cedric Richmond, who pressed Sewell to explain just how quickly Apple would be able to comply with a governmental request for assistance.

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Reuters reports that both Republican and Democratic party members of the House Judiciary Committee support Apple’s view that Congress, not the courts, should decide the FBI case – and plan to file a legal brief to say so. The committee is responsible for overseeing the administration of justice within federal courts, and most of its members have a legal background.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee are considering filing a “friend of the court” brief in Apple’s encryption dispute with the U.S. government to argue that the case should be decided by Congress and not the courts, five sources familiar with the matter said […]

They said the brief would come from individual committee members of both Republican and Democratic parties but not the judiciary committee itself. Reuters could not determine which members were likely to be included … 

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Throughout Apple’s fight with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen, many have doubted the likelihood that there’s anything valuable on the device to begin with. The iPhone 5c used by the gunman was issued by the County of San Bernardino, which gives iPhones to all of its employees. Now, the husband to a survivor of the fatal attacks has spoken out and written a letter, obtained by BuzzFeed, to the court explaining that there is likely nothing of note on the iPhone in question.

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