Richard Clarke, a former national security official, is interviewed by David Green on NPR who gets right to the heart of this encryption issue. If the government wanted this one iPhone unlocked, they could easily do it. This is about the legal precedent and the future of encryption in the U.S. Let your congress representatives know you support strong encryption. You can specifically contact Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to express concerns about their bill intended to force companies to weaken or work around encryption under court orders.
Mr. Clarke, Former National Coordinator for Counterterrorism writing in the Huffington Post further added, “The iPhone [FBI vs Apple case] is really about trying to recast the legal landscape to compel U.S. companies to weaken their data security.” He further states, “The government wants to create laws that would make unbreakable encryption an illegal substance, like cocaine.”
It has been reported that the FBI does not need Apple to decrypt the iPhone. Informationweek reports, “the FBI filed papers that claimed it had found an outside party that could crack the government-owned iPhone 5C that was used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two people responsible for the San Bernardino shooting in December.” Jeff Stone, International Business Times, writes, “An Israeli mobile forensic software firm is helping the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, according to a new report. If successful, the company, Cellebrite, would enable the FBI to subvert the phone’s encryption without requiring assistance from Apple, which the bureau previously said could not be done.”
So it is clear that the FBI does not need Apple to decrypt the iPhone. The FBI has resources to decrypt any smartphone. There is a bigger issue going on with the court case.
Steven Levy, writing on Backchannel, has rather artfully explained the tremendous importance of keeping encryption strong and why Connectech strongly supports Apple’s stance in their fight with the FBI/DOJ. This is about much more than one iPhone. It’s about the legal precedent and therefore THE FUTURE.
Patrick Howell O’Neill, The Kernal, says, “Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency, argued that if the Internet lasts another 500 years, it may be the thing the United States is remembered for, ‘the way the Romans are remembered for their roads.’ It could be the infrastructure that helps define America’s place in history. Encryption—and Cook’s prominent role in the movement supporting it—is one of the most critical technicalities deciding the future of the Internet. If Hayden is right, Cook is reaching his hand out for the steering wheel of history.”
As of March 22, 2016, the FBI has backed down from its court case with Apple according to numerous news sources such as the The New York Times, New York Post, The Register, The Conversation, and others because the FBI has cracked the iPhone encryption. For now, Apple has won round one.