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from the all-your-data-are-belong-to-us dept.
Two years ago, Apple dropped a plan that would have made it impossible for the company to decrypt iPhone and iPad backups for law enforcement, according to a Reuters report today. Reuters wrote that "six sources familiar with the matter" confirmed that Apple dropped the end-to-end encryption plan for iCloud Backup "after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations."
[...] "Under that plan, primarily designed to thwart hackers, Apple would no longer have a key to unlock the encrypted data, meaning it would not be able to turn material over to authorities in a readable form even under court order," the report continued.
[...] Apple had "10 or so experts" working on the end-to-end encryption plan, "variously code-named Plesio and KeyDrop," but told them to stop work on the project once the decision was made, according to Reuters' sources.
[...] Messages is a special case. Messages itself has end-to-end encryption, but iCloud Backup "includes a copy of the key protecting your Messages." If you want full protection for Messages, you'd want to disable iCloud Backup and back your iOS devices up to iTunes on your computer instead.
iCloud Backup's inclusion of a copy of the Messages key "ensures you can recover your Messages if you lose access to iCloud Keychain and your trusted devices," Apple explains. "When you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device to protect future messages and isn't stored by Apple."
[...] President Trump blasted Apple on Twitter last week, writing that Apple "refuse[s] to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements."
Apple countered that it gave the FBI "gigabytes of information" including "iCloud backups, account information and transactional data for multiple accounts."
Apple may be unable to unlock the phones since it hasn't granted the government's request for a backdoor—and continues to argue that encryption backdoors would harm security for all users.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/apple-reportedly-nixed-plan-for-end-to-end-encryption-in
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:32AM (8 children)
Think you really can?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:42AM (7 children)
iCan: that's the app where you put your iMac on the curb and no longer input data to it, it will then no longer be backing data to the cloud.
I trust iPads so much that when they die I drive a nail through their chips before sending them for recycling.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Wednesday January 22 2020, @07:43AM (1 child)
Which chip. While metaphorical powerful, driving a nail in a piece of electronics to wipe it seems noneffective.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday January 22 2020, @12:00PM
The OP is dealing with pirated GoT episodes and pr0n, not nuclear weapons launch codes. Smashing the chip is fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:02PM
The nail is not enough. You must also decapitate them for the ritual to be complete.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:46PM (3 children)
What a waste. That's a lost great opportunity for some Louisrossman-fu style SMD rework training :)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:54PM (2 children)
This is my concern - iPads are one design, so anybody who has practiced on them could pick mine out of the recycling stream and possibly pull the flash chip and start ordering stuff through our iTunes account, because: pad dies before had a chance to wipe it - if wiping even works.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:29PM (1 child)
Well there's your problem! Used electronics are meant to go in that bottom drawer with the 20-year-old laptops that stopped booting a decade ago. Your grandkids will be interested someday, and might even say "neat" when they see the old designs.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:48PM
My drawers aren't that deep... 4 old phones + 6 old tablets + 4 old laptops + 2 old NUCs are my limit, at some point they need to leave the home.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:39AM
The majority of users, particularly "it just works" fruity users, don't care.
The government, at times, cares a great deal - enough to make business less profitable than it would be if the government were happy.
Which one impacts the bottom line more? That's the one that will drive the actual decision.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:48AM
"nixed plans.. for end-to-end encryption"
...because it would have gotten in the way of continuing sales in China?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:19AM
Apple has the option to push a software update to just one phone.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Fnord666 on Wednesday January 22 2020, @12:27PM (3 children)
Let me preface this by saying that IANAL and I don't even play one on the internet. When this topic comes up I wonder where data service based messaging services like Signal, iMessage, etc. fall in terms of CALEA [wikipedia.org]. If you didn't know, CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act), adopted in 1995, requires that communications providers provide the capability, upon court order, for law enforcement to be able to tap into voice communications and text messaging. This includes VOIP communications. A Title III wiretap includes sending the content of calls and text messages to law enforcement.
Are applications such as Signal, iMessage, etc. bound by this same requirement?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @01:50PM
Didn't you hear, the internet isn't a telecommunications system.
At least not according to Ajit Pai.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:17PM (1 child)
I must confess this "They can legally make you lie" has bothered me a long time.
For Signal, however, it is open source and you can implement your own messaging support network.
Disclaimer: I've done a *little* development on it...
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Thursday January 23 2020, @12:42AM
Personally I use Signal. I have met Moxie at a conference or two and I know him by reputation. If anything is going to be solid it's going to be something that is open source and developed by someone with the right background. It's not going to be something that is closed source and developed by coders with Stack Overflow buttons all over their bookmarks bar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @01:07PM
Doesn't matter to anyone here as only teenage girls use smartphones. Unless they happen to work for the FBI or Apple looking at their pictures. :P
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Wednesday January 22 2020, @01:32PM
Always 'apple changed their minds about privacy and didn't implement feature X'
Apple empowered the totalitarian state, obeyed government authority wishes, lied about privacy to their customers and users, gave them a sense of privacy without any actual privacy, and provides phones that are outright extensions of the police station. Every conversation you have on these devices is as if you were in an interrogation room with a false mirror.
These are all patterns of imposed socialism, fiat socialism, command socialism, dictatorial socialism, corporate socialism, but it is national socialism, also known as nazi policies. From apple. You know the one that in 1984 had the commercial about bringing color to a black and white dystopia...From grand ideal of freedom, to just another brick in the wall in, 35 years.
Sigh. Garbage people and their garbage claim another set of ideas for their junkpile.
thesesystemsarefailing.net
(side topic, what would you do if you typed an ssh command into the built in terminal on a recent macbook and when the command failed, the history does not match what you entered? And you confirm 5 times, extra characters get added to the username everytime. ssh user@domain.net became ssh uuuuser@domain.net in the command history. Then uuubusser@domain.net, then ussser@domain.net, and every time when you hit enter it looked like 'user@domain.net'. What could cause that? How would you investigate? Sadly I no longer have the machine it was a loner for a day.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @04:45PM
well the "solution" for apple would be to sell yet-another-device that the user can keep at home. or in a safe. somewhere. and not having to use iBackup or what it's called.
so if you trust apple with your backups they can say that they have to comply with government and that there IS a option to do the backups yourself (in which case YOU have to deal with the government)?
maybe the point is moot but i am not a apple iUser so i don't really know what is possible and what is not ...
(Score: 1) by evilcam on Thursday January 23 2020, @05:09AM
That allowing Tim Apple to unlock phones based on a subpoena would mean Congress could demand a copy of his text messages and the contents of his iPhone? Like as a part of an investigation...