The FBI has moved to vacate a Tuesday hearing while it explores an option that may allow it to access the contents of a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without cooperation from Apple. The FBI wants time to test the method so that it can be sure that it is viable and won't destroy the data:
The FBI says it may have found a way to crack into the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone without Apple's help. While it explores this option, the government has filed a motion to vacate a hearing set for Tuesday that would be the next step toward settling the battle between Apple and the FBI. The FBI says that on Sunday, an "outside party" demonstrated to the FBI a "possible method for unlocking" Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone.
Who is the "outside party"? Is there any such agency that could help?
At Apple's latest launch event, CEO Time Cook reiterated his commitment to privacy and security:
Like the iPhone 5C, the new iPhone SE includes Apple's encryption technology, which jumbles up information stored in the phone so that it can only be viewed with a passcode. The phone's powered by Apple's iOS 9 software, which includes a feature that automatically wipes out data stored on the phone if someone incorrectly enters the wrong passcode 10 times.
This software, which Apple said is running on more than 80 percent of all the active iPhones and iPads in the world, is at the heart of Cook's battle with the government. And since this new phone uses some of Apple's latest and most powerful processors, customers will be able to upgrade and run new versions of iOS for the next several years. That means any new security precautions Apple puts in place can be added to this model.
"Many, many customers have asked for this, and I think they're going to love it," Cook, said during a media event announcing the device at Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters. He kicked off the event to applause by saying Apple never planned to face off with the government over its security, but that it isn't going to back down. "This is an issue that impacts all of us, and we will not shrink from this responsibility."
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Apple Denies FBI Request to Unlock Shooter's iPhone:
Apple once again is drawing the line at breaking into a password-protected iPhone for a criminal investigation, refusing a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help unlock the iPhones of a shooter responsible for an attack in Florida.
The company late Monday said it won't help the FBI crack two iPhones belonging to Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi-born Air Force cadet and suspect in a shooting that killed three people in December at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.
The decision is reminiscent of a scenario that happened during the investigation of a 2015 California shooting, and could pit federal law enforcement against Apple in court once again to argue over data privacy in the case of criminal investigations.
While Apple said it's helping in the FBI's investigation of the Pensacola shooting—refuting criticism to the contrary—the company said it won't help the FBI unlock two phones the agency said belonged to Alshamrani.
"We reject the characterization that Apple has not provided substantive assistance in the Pensacola investigation," the company said in a statement emailed to Threatpost. "Our responses to their many requests since the attack have been timely, thorough and are ongoing."
[...] The FBI sent a letter to Apple's general counsel last week asking the company to help the agency crack the iPhones, as their attempts until that point to guess the "relevant passcodes" had been unsuccessful, according to the letter, which was obtained by NBC News.
(Score: 1) by Cognizant on Tuesday March 22 2016, @06:43AM
Who is the "outside party"? Is there any such agency that could help?
... and Mr. Mcafee notices the quick hush of the crowd ...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday March 22 2016, @07:24AM
The "outside party" could of cause be another government agency but it might as well, probably just as likely if not more, just be one of the myriad of (un-)"ethical" hacking companies that create various software tools for government- and law enforcement agencies to fill all their spying, hacking, surveillance and computer forensics needs.
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Tuesday March 22 2016, @09:18AM
Yeah, the NCIS can do it. Should take Abby all of one commercial break.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday March 22 2016, @11:06AM
With enough Caf-Pow I'm sure she could move the earth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23 2016, @04:31AM
I'm not sure; she might need McGee on half the keyboard while she uses the other half to do it that quickly. That's how all the serious government hackers get things done quickly.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:53PM
The Outside Party could just be a ploy, and they are finally going to desolder the storage chip, extract all the data and break the encryption with brute force. Had they done that in the first place they would probably be done by now.
I'm convinced the FBI realized they were going to LOSE THIS CASE, and are backing away from any ruling.
This is exactly the tactic used when court challenges went after the "encryption as a munition" nonsense. The TLAs fought it tooth and nail and when it looked like they were going to lose in court, they suddenly folded tent and disappeared. Because it never came to a final court ruling, the government STILL to this day has the capability to declare encryption a munition and resume the old ban.
(Some may think that horse has left the barn, but don't be too sure about that. Its grazing in the pasture of the mandatory back-door).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:18AM
In 2012 a crack fiend was arrested by the Belizean authorities for a crime he didn't commit. This man promptly escaped to the Tenessee underground. Today, he survives as a programmer of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them... maybe you can hire The McAfee Team.
Daa, da-da daa!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2016, @10:58AM
His 'how to uninstall McAfee' A/V team to help him self publish that to youtube. I'd watch it. Especially if it has all his escapades with barely (or not even) legal babes included like a 70s/80s TV show :)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MadTinfoilHatter on Tuesday March 22 2016, @06:45AM
We're not sure this case will provide us with the authoritarian precedent we hoped that it would, so we're backing down for now until we can regroup and find a case/judge/government combo that will do that.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:24AM
Yeah, well, we don't need your help. We can do it by ourselves, yeah, so there.
So you might as well just do it for us anyway...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:34AM
The FBI has repeatedly sworn under oath in this case that they have no other way to access the info.
That's despite guys like the ACLU explaining they should fiddle with the memory location that contains decryption key [aclu.org] and just store it each time they get 10 failed PINs.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 22 2016, @06:12PM
The other comment section linked in that one paints a much less rosy picture.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11199093 [ycombinator.com]
Q: Why don't they just do X? Duh.
A: Because the engineers probably thought of that already and X isn't nearly as trivial to do as you seem to think.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday March 22 2016, @11:20PM
key word is 'probably'...
in these incipient authoritarian times, group-think is paramount, and *really* thinking outside the box gets you labeled as some sort of whackjob...
so, not at all unthinkable that 'professionals' in a restricted group-think organization/political structure may miss *all kinds* of ideas that would occur to others not so encumbered...
besides, there are likely political/legal precedent considerations which are more the game than the actual phone...
after all, these were county-owned phones NOT destroyed when they DID destroy their personal phones...
sure, they probably backed up all their nefarious plans to take over the world on their work phone...
...or not
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Tuesday March 22 2016, @10:03AM
The FBI always new they could extract the data and Apple also new.
PR show over, Apple has saved some face while both parties happily continue to suck up your data.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday March 22 2016, @11:28AM
Disagree. While it is true that FBI new, Apple in fact old.
(gotta love the English language - grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:19PM
The FBI does not now, and never did care about getting in to THIS PARTICULAR iPhone.
The FBI wants a precedent to gain access to any phone, anywhere, any time, without any kind of supervision.
The FBI realizes they are losing this battle. They do NOT want a precedent that might go the other way, limiting their ability, or reinforcing Apple's direction of making devices hacker-proof (including government hackers).
This is REALLY about getting this entire thing to end right now.
Two outcomes:
1. FBI successfully actually breaks into this device. Just this device. See, we really weren't interested in other devices, until next time. And next after that.
2. FBI unsuccessfully breaks in but in the process 'accidentally' destroys the phone.
Either way:
Dear judge: this present issue is now moot. No longer any need to compel Apple to assist. Thanks for playing.
Then the FBI regroups and figures out it's next plan of attack to get a precedent to gain unlimited and most important un supervised access.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by WillR on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:23PM
First item in the security notes for the latest iOS release is a kernel code execution vulnerability in parsing USB device information. Maybe the FBI have built a malicious USB network device that can exploit that hole to dump the phone's flash contents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 28 2016, @12:19PM
Dumping the flash won't help as the flash is encrypted. The encryption key is securely stored in the CPU and directly sent to the encryption engine. They need to somehow get the encryption key.
However they might have found a way to use this exploit (or perhaps a different one) to run the code they need to brute-force the PIN without the built-in delays and self-destruct after 10 failed attempts.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Osamabobama on Tuesday March 22 2016, @05:08PM
Since nobody else has yet, I'll take a swing:
No, there is No Such Agency.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.