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from the will-the-government-stop-using-crypto-too? dept.
The suits working for the federal three-letter agencies are at it again according to this article published in Ars, citing a pay-walled Wall Street Journal article.
The No. 2 official at the Justice Department recently warned top Apple executives that stronger encryption protections added to iPhones would lead to a horrific tragedy, such as a child dying, because police couldn't access a suspect's device, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The beefed up protections, Apple recently disclosed, mean that even when company officials are served with a court order, they will be unable to retrieve potentially crucial evidence such as photos, messages, or contacts stored on iPhones and iPads. Instead, the data can be accessed only by people who know the passcode that serves as the encryption key.
Justice Department officials wasted no time objecting to the changes and used the scenario of a child being kidnapped and murdered to drive home their claim that Apple was "marketing to criminals." According to the WSJ, Justice Department officials including Deputy Attorney General James Cole met with Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell and two other company employees on October 1.
The article goes on to quote the WSJ article's description of that meeting:
Mr. Cole offered the Apple team a gruesome prediction: At some future date, a child will die, and police will say they would have been able to rescue the child, or capture the killer, if only they could have looked inside a certain phone. His statements reflected concern within the FBI that a careful criminal can shield much activity from police surveillance by minimizing use of cellphone towers and not backing up data.
The Apple representatives viewed Mr. Cole’s suggestion as inflammatory and inaccurate. Police have other ways to get information, they said, including call logs and location information from cellphone carriers. In addition, many users store copies of a phone’s data elsewhere.
How long will these "Think of the children!" arguments actually be made before the government realizes this situation came about because it cannot be trusted?
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Friday November 21 2014, @07:12PM
You appear to hold a genuine opinion about the genuine opinion of other people. It is hard to falsify an opinion and particularly hard to falsify a second hand opinion. However, I cannot find anything false in your recent messages.
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