Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before | Hacker News Reader

Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before

thedailybeast.com

77 pointshammock15 comments

Unlocking the phone isn't the same as decrypting it. The article merely states that Apple extracted unencrypted content from a locked phone. In this case, the content is encrypted.

The article even acknowledges this, which makes the title essentially clickbait.

In iOS you can specify that files in an app's sandbox are "encrypted" when the device is locked.

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/FileMa... (See "Files Can Be Encrypted On Disk")

Implementing the feature is pretty trivial and works on a file by file basis

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone... (See "Protecting Data Using On-Disk Encryption")

More details about the options here: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/...

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/...

Being compelled to unlock a phone is different than being compelled to create software to unlock a phone.

And what about the situation in which FBI writes the custom OS and then force Apple to sign the update?

Won't happen, and the Supreme Court will shut it down. Check Congressman Tim Lieu's post on just this; it's really interesting.

Is this the post?

https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressm...

It's Ted, not Tim, Lieu BTW.

I read it. He don't grasp the technical issues - sadly this is going partisan it seems.

No one is compelling apple to weaken their encryption scheme because it is already weak. They are just asking for them to weaponize existing weakness (the weakness being apple having the ability to update the software on the device)

Wow - was expecting something totally different. Kudos to Ted Lieu for speaking up on this.

>Government written software

It will be somehow worse than Apple software

Dont worry, apple maps will navigate all my my detractors into the ocean soon enough

Why do I imagine Tim Cook saying to the FBI "You'll have to find me first!" before laughing manically and disappearing into a cloud of smoke leaving behind a iPad with Apple Maps loaded.

Yeah end to end encryption I believe wasn't introduced until iOS 7 - this would mean that prior to that the device, while still locked - could be vulnerable to potential exploits allowing someone to grab at least some data that may be unencrypted from the phones storage

I found this article about the changes from 7 to 8:

http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/10/why-cant-app...

This has been posted multiple times. What they are asking Apple to do now is fundamentally different. They are asking Apple to create a custom firmware and push it to a phone that disables security protections that are there to protect YOU!

You think anyone really cares what's on that terrorist's work phone? They can already easily get call and text records from the ISP. Same with email records etc. This is a move to get Apple to create a backdoor into their phones.

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