FBI

Following the revelation that Apple’s top lawyer Bruce Sewell will testify before Congress this coming week over encryption, another attorney for the company has sat down with CNN to discuss the ongoing case. In the interview, current Apple representative and former United States solicitor general Ted Olson discussed how what the government is asking Apple to do is “limitless.”

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If you’re keeping score at home, add San Bernardino’s police chief as the latest to take sides in the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI. Jarrod Burguan, the local police chief, joined NPR to share his views on the current FBI and Apple privacy battle. In the interview, Burguan admits that there is “a good chance that there is nothing of any value on the phone”, but believes there is the possibility that “maybe there was some information on there that would lead to a larger plot or larger network.”

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TechCrunch spotted an interesting security hire by Apple: the developer behind Edward Snowden’s recommended secure chat app is joining Apple as an intern.

Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who worked to develop secure messaging app Signal […] announced today that he is joining the Cupertino-based company this summer to work in its CoreOS security team. 

As the site notes, Signal passed every security test when put through its paces by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can’t really get a better endorsement than the fact that Snowden trusts it.

Apple is also ramping up its incredibly strong language in arguing its position against the FBI …

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FBI director James Comey – who had previously claimed that “the San Bernardino litigation isn’t about trying to set a precedent” – has now admitted that it would. The Guardian reports that Comey made the admission when testifying under oath yesterday to a Congress committee.

The ultimate outcome of the Apple-FBI showdown is likely to “guide how other courts handle similar requests”, James Comey told a congressional intelligence panel on Thursday, a softening of his flat insistence on Sunday that the FBI was not attempting to “set a precedent”.

Asked if it was true that police departments around the country also wanted to gain access to locked iPhones, he agreed that it was …

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Following Apple’s filling earlier today in which it formally responded to the FBI’s court request to access date on a locked iPhone, the Wall Street Journal now reports that Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter all plan to file court motions supporting Apple’s stance.

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There’s a new development in the ongoing back-and-forth between Apple and the Department of Justice. Apple’s top lawyer, Bruce Sewell, will testify on encryption next week before a congressional hearing. The upcoming hearing will take place on Tuesday, March 1st, just five days from today.

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It looks like Apple’s plans to strengthen iPhone security to make it impossible for the company to comply with future demands to hack into them will require new hardware. But you can already make it effectively impossible to gain access to your iPhone, even if Apple was forced to bypass passcode time-outs. All that is needed are two simple changes.

First, if you currently use a 6-digit passcode, change it to a longer one. If Apple removes the timeouts, and that compromised firmware gets into the wrong hands, it will take an average of just 11 hours to brute-force a 6-digit code. Simply doubling the number of digits to 12 means that the average time needed increases exponentially to 1,268 years.

If that isn’t enough for you, changing it to a complex alphanumeric one literally pushes the brute-force attack time into the millions of years. There is, however, one other weakness you need to address …

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Apple may be battling one branch of U.S. law enforcement on a terrorist-related issue, but CNN reports that the company is working closely with another on a broader fight against ISIS. Apple is one of six leading tech and media companies offering assistance to the Department of Justice in countering ISIS messaging and posts on social media.

At a meeting conducted at the Justice Department on Wednesday, executives from Apple, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, MTV and Buzzfeed offered their input to top counter intelligence officials, according to an industry source familiar with the meeting.

In all, nearly 50 companies and community groups participated, along with the National Security Council, the State Department and the British Embassy.

The issue is not just one of propaganda, said National Counterterrorism Center director Nick Rasmussen, but of directly encouraging acts of terrorism …

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This week Zac, Chance, Jeff, and Greg talk about updates for iPad Pro, Apple TV, and the controversy surrounding Apple’s situation with the FBI. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has today sat down with ABC’s David Muir to talk about the company’s battle with the FBI. Last week, a California court requested that Apple unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen in December. Cook replied to the request with a letter on Apple’s homepage, saying that Apple did not want to create the tool that would be required to unlock the device. In his interview with Muir, Cook elaborated on the company’s decision…

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Apple said yesterday that its legal battle with the FBI has such far-reaching consequences that it should be settled by Congress rather than by the courts – but if that tack is unsuccessful, Bloomberg reports that the company will be putting forward a rather unusual argument in court. Apple will argue that the digital signature it uses to validate code is protected by the First Amendment as free speech, which cannot be compelled in law.

Before you download a new game or messaging app on your iPhone, the device checks for a digital signature tucked within the lines of code on the app. All applications sold through the App Store are approved by Apple and have this cryptographic autograph from the company telling your iPhone it’s safe. In the FBI case, some privacy advocates believe the company has a strong First Amendment case because it’s being asked to add that signature, against its will, to software that would aid the government.

In other words, even if the government could force Apple to write code that would remove the passcode protections, it shouldn’t be allowed to force Apple to sign the code – and if Apple doesn’t sign it, the iPhone won’t accept it …

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According to a report from the Associated Press, Apple plans to file legal papers in which it will argue that its fight with the FBI of decrypting an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen should be settled by Congress. This report follows Apple CEO Tim Cook’s letter to employees in which he stated that the government should withdraw its demands because they are invalid under the All Writs Act from 1789.

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Update: Bill Gates has told Bloomberg that he was “disappointed” by the ways his views were presented, and he does not back the FBI’s side of this particular case, and that the matter should be decided by the courts.

Apple is locked in a battle with the FBI over whether or not it should create a tool to access data on a locked iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen, but as some have expected, that’s only one of many cases in which Apple is involved. The Wall Street Journal reports this evening that the Department of Justice is seeking data from at least 12 other iPhones in criminal cases.

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Following Tim Cook sending a letter to all Apple employees earlier today regarding the issue, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has today expressed his support for Apple in its ongoing battle with the FBI. Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Facebook CEO stated that he doesn’t believe that building back doors is the way to handle situations like the one being debated (via NY Times).

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Retired General Michael Hayden, former head of both the NSA and CIA, told USA Today that while he “trends toward the government” on the ‘master key‘ approach to the San Bernardino case, he thinks Apple is right that there should never be a back door to encryption. His remarks were made as Tim Cook called for the government to drop its demands that Apple help the FBI break into an iPhone.

Hayden went so far as to specifically call out FBI Director Jim Comey in his comments.

In this specific case, I’m trending toward the government, but I’ve got to tell you in general I oppose the government’s effort, personified by FBI Director Jim Comey. Jim would like a back door available to American law enforcement in all devices globally. And, frankly, I think on balance that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim’s job a bit easier in some specific circumstances.

Comey has repeatedly attacked Apple’s use of strong encryption on iPhones …

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Obtained via Buzzfeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a memo this morning to employees reaffirming its position against the government in the Apple/FBI iPhone backdoor case. He thanks Apple employees and feedback from customers for their public support and says that whilst Apple has no sympathy for terrorists, the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding citizens is threatened by the government order.

Apple wants the government to withdraw its demands justified by the All Writs Act and encourages an open discussion between law enforcement, technology and privacy experts on privacy issues. In addition, Apple has posted an expanded question and answers page as a followup to Tim Cook’s original open letter to better inform the public of the situation.

In the memo, Cook openly notes that it does not feel right to be fighting against the government when defending constitutional liberties and freedoms.

Apple is a uniquely American company. It does not feel right to be on the opposite side of the government in a case centering on the freedoms and liberties that government is meant to protect.

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Victims and families of victims in the San Bernardino shootings have expressed divided views on the Apple vs FBI battle over access to an iPhone used by one of the terrorists.

We noted earlier that the mother of one of those killed in the attack has expressed support for Apple’s position, stating that the constitutional right to privacy “is what makes America great.”

This is what separates us from communism, isn’t it? The fact we have the right to privacy. I think Apple is definitely within their rights to protect the privacy of all Americans.

However, Reuters reports that some victims of the attack plan to file a legal brief in support of the FBI …

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The FBI has released a press statement explaining its motivation for resetting the iCloud password in the San Bernardino iPhone backdoor/unlock case. It seems like a screw-up, which prevented Apple from extracting data from the phone via iCloud. However, the FBI says that the county did it, in collaboration with FBI, in order to gain access to the suspect’s iCloud account. It says it was able to successfully retrieve iCloud backups up to October 19th. However, the reason it wants Apple to create a backdoor into the locked iPhone is because it believes there is more data on the phone relevant to the case yet to be uncovered.

For unknown reasons, the iPhone did not backup anything to iCloud after 19th October. It is possible Syed Farook disabled the feature or the iPhone simply did not return to a known WiFi network whilst being plugged in. It is not known if a later iCloud backup would have yielded more information …

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