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bob_super [soylentnews.org] writes:

[Note to Editors: might have been a comment on the existing story, but as a different approach on the NSA and the Apple/FBI discussion this might elicit enough discussion to warrant its own story on a slow day (5 in the queue)]

Since we keep talking [soylentnews.org] about Apple versus the FBI, I thought I'd propose a simple solution to the problem, which as far as I can think would satisfy most parties...

The problem is getting access to a known terrorist's encrypted information.
The question is whether Apple should threaten their own security, and the trust of their customers worldwide (as other states could demand the same for their "terrorists"), for what's likely to be an limited or insignificant chunk of data. Apple gets bad publicity regardless of the outcome.

Well, it turns out that we already pay some people to secretly do what Apple is being asked to do: our good old friends at the NSA. They're pretty good at cracking "Bad Guy" systems, and people know that. So my proposal is pretty simple:
  1) Give the Terrorist's encrypted device to the NSA.
  2) Let it be known that a Classified meeting happened at the NSA with Apple's security gurus.
  3) The NSA "allocates proper resources to defend the country against a clear computer-based threat", performs its magic, and provides access to the phone for the FBI.

What's the point?
  - Apple cannot reveal what the NSA requested to know to help open the phone. It's Classified, which is easily justified by Apple's security being important to the US.
  - The NSA doesn't have to reveal whether they could have done it without Apple's help, and whether their solution is applicable to more than just that phone.
  - Apple is not compelled to create software for the government just because a judge said so, and it also stops having to explain why it seemingly protects a terrorist's data.
  - Apple can keep telling customers and other governments that it is not sure how to safely bypass the security. Should another government request similar information, they may get those details which are not protected by US regulations, and if that coincidentally isn't enough to also open a target's phone, it must have been that the NSA guys are really very very good.
  - The FBI gets the data they requested (officially what they want) without further delays and lawyers.

Not only would both Apple and the FBI both get what they want despite the apparent incompatible goals, but the NSA would be the good guys for actually doing their job.
Some people will argue that handing the secrets to the government is necessarily a bad thing. But the NSA doesn't share its recipes with other agencies, may already have those secrets anyway, and the security scheme on that phone was already superseded in newer device versions, limiting the potential for reuse.

What do Soylentils think?

Original Submission