By Doug Porter
The Federal Bureau of Investigation persuaded a judge to order Apple to create a workaround for iPhone security restrictions preventing them from trying unlimited PIN codes to crack into the phone used by one of San Bernadino terrorists.
Apple has said ‘no way’ and likely intends to appeal the order. The FBI and Department of Justice, with the Obama administration’s “full” support, say they are “not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to their products,” but rather are seeking entry “to this one device.”
What the government’s not saying is that the process of gaining entry to this device once possessed by a TERRORIST (are you afraid yet?) provides a precedent amounting to unlocking all secure phones. They’re banking on judges and the public not grasping the scope of what is going on here. And it turns out they’ve been looking for a way to make this happen for quite some time.
The FBI wants the company to write new software, specifically an automatic update overriding existing limitations on how many times an errant PIN code can be entered. As things stand now–and this is the short version–, the phone in question would wipe itself clean after ten failed attempts. So the government is trying to subpoena or get a warrant for something that doesn’t exist.
The Story of the Terrorist iPhone
The device in question here is an iPhone5C, given to Syed Rizwan Farook by the San Bernardino County Health Department and was used in his job as an inspector. Farook created the unique numerical pass code.
On December 2nd they killed 14 people and seriously injured 22 more at the Inland Regional Center. The perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, targeted a rented banquet room being used for a Department of Public Health training event and holiday party. It was subsequently learned that they were inspired by–but not associated with– various terrorist organizations.
Farook and his wife deliberately destroyed other devices but didn’t bother destroying this one. The iPhone was backing up to iCloud, and the FBI already has those backups. So the only missing data was created between the last backup and the terrorist attack.
Apple has, in the past, given up data in response to court orders. In a 1977 case involving an investigation into illegal gambling, the Supreme Court ruled said an obscure law passed in 1789 (the All Writs Act) could be used to compel a company to provide the government with existing technology to facilitate surveillance.
From the Los Angeles Times:
This week’s court order was different from those issued in the past, however. It requires Apple to create new software, experts said, not provide technology already at hand.
“This is a new frontier,” said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “I know of no other statutory provision that would arguably create an obligation for device manufacturers to help out the government.”
Apple may not have fought orders in the past because “it was easy for Apple to give the data,” she said.
“But the architecture of the phones changed,” she said. “This is about Apple creating a new forensic version of its software to do the job the FBI wants it to do.”
Is Apple the One Crying Wolf?
If you look beyond the specifics of the Apple court order, it’s hard to miss the fact that law enforcement/intelligence agencies have a terrible track record when it comes to misusing and/or subverting every single bit or hardware and/or technology made available to them.
Hick towns in rural areas have armored vehicles. Hell, the San Diego Unified School District tried to get one until it got shamed via news stories. Body cam videos –the recording devices supposed to help weed out abusive cops– are now safely hidden behind the ‘blue wall’ that allowed those bad apples to get their way in the past.
(Yes, I’m aware of the City Attorney’s memo saying the buck stops with the mayor. This changes nothing.)
The FBI’s sharing program with the super-secret Stingray technology–one that spoofs cell phone towers to enable tracking–has been abused and misused at every turn by agencies all over the country.
The feds even required local law enforcement to drop criminal proceedings if evidence gathered was subpoenaed. Crooks walked free. And, rather than use it in the kind of life or death cases (a ticking bomb…your child kidnapped…) apologists like to bring up in debates this technology was used (and hidden) in everyday garden-variety criminal cases.
Here’s Nicholas Weaver (who doesn’t think some backdoors are a bad idea), writing at Lawfare:
The same logic behind what the FBI seeks could just as easily apply to a mandate forcing Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others to push malicious code to a device through automatic updates when the device isn’t yet in law enforcement’s hand. So the precedent the FBI seeks doesn’t represent just “create and install malcode for this device in Law Enforcement possession” but rather “create and install malcode for this device”…
…The San Bernardino case, however, is not a tip-toe down a slippery slope but a direct leap into a dangerous world, one which would compromise all our security under an incredibly ambitious reading of the law.
As the ACLU’s principal technologist Chris Soghoian says:
“Everyone is carefully watching this because if the government gets what they want here, they’ll have the power to conscript tech companies to covertly deliver surveillance software.”
A Broader Government Strategy
This court order didn’t come about because the government believes it will gain significant intelligence; it came about because they were seeking a precedent.
From Bloomberg Business:
In a secret meeting convened by the White House around Thanksgiving, senior national security officials ordered agencies across the U.S. government to find ways to counter encryption software and gain access to the most heavily protected user data on the most secure consumer devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone, the marquee product of one of America’s most valuable companies, according to two people familiar with the decision.
The approach was formalized in a confidential National Security Council “decision memo,” tasking government agencies with developing encryption workarounds, estimating additional budgets and identifying laws that may need to be changed to counter what FBI Director James Comey calls the “going dark” problem: investigators being unable to access the contents of encrypted data stored on mobile devices or traveling across the Internet. Details of the memo reveal that, in private, the government was honing a sharper edge to its relationship with Silicon Valley alongside more public signs of rapprochement.
On Tuesday, the public got its first glimpse of what those efforts may look like when a federal judge ordered Apple to create a special tool for the FBI to bypass security protections on an iPhone 5c belonging to one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has vowed to fight the order, calling it a “chilling” demand that Apple “hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers.” The order was not a direct outcome of the memo but is in line with the broader government strategy.
As is often the case, the real-world bad guys are way out in front of this.
From Conor Friedersdorf, writing in the Atlantic:
The truth is that despite the spread of encryption, law enforcement is living in a golden age of surveillance. In fact, the rapidly increasing capabilities of Big Brother pose a far greater threat to Americans than criminals or terrorists exploiting new ways to “go dark.” Acting surreptitiously is harder than ever in this world.
The final point to bear in mind is how little Americans will benefit if the FBI gets its way here. If iPhones are easy for the FBI to breach, the next San Bernardino shooter won’t just leave theirs on a table, blowing their whole network after an attack. They’ll abandon the iPhone, so that only non-terrorists are vulnerable to having their security breached; they’ll use less mainstream tools to encrypt their data; or they’ll “go dark” the old-fashioned way, by dropping their phone off a boat or tossing it off a bridge or pouring gasoline over the device and lighting a match.
All but the dumbest murderers and terrorists will adapt. And Americans will be left with dramatically less secure devices in exchange for infinitesimally more security. If these are the FBI’s best examples, bad guys “going dark” is a less-costly phenomenon than I had imagined.
Finally, if the government truly believed this current tactic was needed or our national security/safety, they wouldn’t be using an obscure law as their own “back door.” They’d go before the Congress and ask for legislation authorizing this type of surveillance.
The problem is, however, that they already have. And the Congress, responding to a massive email and petition campaign, said no.
Weekly Progressive Calendar: Upcoming in San Diego
Mirrors of Privilege: Film & Conversation on Race
Saturday, February 20th, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Peace Resource Center of San Diego
3850 Westgate Place
Info & Updates RSVP appreciated. Refreshments provided.
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible is a film for all people who are interested in justice, personal growth, and community. It features experiences of white women and men who have worked to gain insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white supremacy in the United States. It is “a moving call, long-overdue, coming from the heart of white people working to restore their own humanity. Undoing the false teachings of racial supremacy, which are all-pervasive and quite subtle, requires a lifetime of work.” – Van Jones
Co-hosted by the Peace Resource Center & San Diego First Church of the Brethren.
Refreshments provided by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee as part of their effort to “highlight the connection between U.S. militarism and misplaced priorities on local issues” and nonviolent strategies for social change.
Emerge California’s San Diego Reception
Saturday, February 20, 6:30pm
The Prado at Balboa Park
Info & Updates
Admission charge applies
Join the 2016 Southern Emerge CA Class as we celebrate Black History Month!
Come meet the new cohort of Democratic women leaders who will change the tone, tenor, and face of politics in California and beyond.
Light Brigade Berners Tell the AFL-CIO to Endorse Bernie, Day 1 of 2
Sunday, February 21st, 6-9pm
Hilton San Diego Bayfront
Info & Updates
The executive council of the AFL-CIO will be meeting at the Bayfront Hilton near the Convention Center from February 21st thru the 24th. We want a Bernie Light Brigade at or near the site of the confab to show them that there is support for Bernie. This is an event that will be posted twice, because it will take place over two evenings. Please sign up for one or both days so we can light up the night with the Bernie Light Brigade. It is not necessary to be here for the full three hours, you can come when you are able and leave when you must. We will be taking turns holding our letters in informal shifts.
bernie lights…jpg
Lori Saldaña Petition & Volunteer Recruiting Party
Sunday, February 21st, 1-3pm
Grassroots Oasis
3130 Moore St. (Old Town)
Info & Updates
We have until March 10th to gather signatures to get Lori on the June 7th Ballot for Mayor and show how the Political Revolution has come to the San Diego Mayor’s race! Come to the Grassroots Oasis to sign the petition (must be a registered voter in the City of San Diego) and/or get petitions to collect signatures for Lori! The only requirements for the person circulating the petition for a candidate is that the person is a US citizen at least 18 years of age.
Hear from Lori about our grassroots campaign to move San Diego forward into the 21st Century, and meet others who want to be part of this paradigm shift! Light refreshments will be served.
Election Day in Carlsbad on Measure A
Tues., Feb. 23: Please vote NO.
The Third Annual Zero Waste Symposium:
Programs and Policies Moving us Closer to Zero
Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 9am -5pm
Campus Center Hearing Room
County of San Diego Operations Center, 5520 Overland Avenue
Info & Updates (Tickets, $15-$50)
The keynote speaker will be Captain Charles Moore, Founder & Research Director of Algalita, the leading research organization focused on plastic pollution and its impacts on marine life and ecosystems. Watch one of his compelling talks here.
The Look of Silence
(With an appearance by Documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer)
Tuesday February 23, 2016, 7:15pm
Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union Theatre
San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr.
Free Admission
Presented by Charles W Hostler Institute on World Affairs, Institute for Ethics & Public Affairs / Dept of Philosophy, Love Library, One SDSU, SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film with the support of Kathleen Kennedy, Student Life & Leadership
The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to the Oscar®nominated The Act of Killing. Through Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide (which killed 10,500 people), a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.
San Diego Planning Meeting for May 1st – International Workers’ Day
Tuesday, February 23, 6:30pm
ICWJ San Diego
3758 30th Street
Info & Updates
Join the Coalition for Labor and Community Solidarity for an initial planning meeting for a day of action on May 1st, 2016 in San Diego to commemorate International Workers’ Day.
Political Repression, the National Security State, and Collective Legal Resistance
Friday, February 26th, 7pm
Groundwork Books
9500 Gilman Dr (0323 UCSD Old Student Center)
Info & Updates
A discussion with Kris Hermes, author of Crashing the Party.
Over the past fifteen years, people in the United States—and dissidents in particular—have witnessed a steady escalation of the National Security State, including invasive surveillance and infiltration, indiscriminate police violence, and unlawful arrests. These concerted efforts to spy on Americans and undermine meaningful social change are greatly enhanced by the coordination of numerous local, state, and federal agencies often operating at the behest of private corporations. Normally associated with the realities of a post-9/11 world, Crashing the Party shows how these developments were already being set in motion during the Republican National Convention (RNC) protests in 2000. It also documents how, in response, dissidents confronted new forms of political repression by pushing legal boundaries and establishing new models of collective resistance.
Get your event listed: I try to list the next 10 days or so of mostly non-commercial events I think our readers might find of interest. I source my material from social media listings and press releases. In cases where there are competing but similar events or campaigns of the progressive persuasion, I do my best to list everything. (Hint, hint Hillary fans.) Unfortunately, my subscription to the psychic hotline has lapsed so if you don’t tell me or Facebook, etc., about your event it won’t get listed. See my email address below.
On This Day: 1942 – President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans. 1975– The U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of sales clerk Leura Collins and her union, the Retail Clerks, in NLRB v. J. Weingarten Inc.—the case establishing that workers have a right to request the presence of their union steward if they believe they are to be disciplined for a workplace infraction. 1991 – Public Enemy boycotted the 1991 Grammy Awards because the rap award was not going to be presented during the live TV ceremony. Sinead O’Connor also boycotted the event.
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Doug Porter
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Uh, no. This ONE device could hold crucial information on terrorist contacts. I side with the FBI on this one. They don’t need access to ALL devices, just this one. Too bad it’s after the fact.
There is no technical way for the FBI to gain access to this ONE device. I thought I explained that fact in the story. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle once it’s out.
The FBI / Justice Department’s move in this case has caused Apple to respond by planning to incorporate a change in the next IOS update to require the user PIN entry before ANY update can be applied. This will preclude the future possibility of Apple being able to assist law enforcement in cases such as this one.
I agree with Tim Cook that the venue for this fight about IT security should be the Congress, not the courts.
Thank you. Your reasoned argument is what I needed to see. My own immediate reaction, disbelief that our FBI could force an unlawful precedent, is given traction. Your weekly events list is helpful, too. Appreciate seeing the petition signing for this Sunday with Soldana.
I agree with Scott for two reasons: Apple can control the access and make the material available to a court and two, the right to privacy ends with the death of the citizen.
Sorry, but you are wrong on both counts. Not a difference of opinion; factually wrong.
Just look at the number of data breaches of encrypted commercial computer systems reported recently. Now, imagine if this ‘master key’ also existed. Fact is, Apple cannot control tech once it is created.
You are trying to resurrect the zombie of torturing a terrorist to save a life. Fact is ‘right to privacy’ doesn’t apply here because the death happened before the threat to privacy.
Apple is trying to keep our personal security high. The FBI is again trying to subvert personal privacy in the name of fighting terrorists.
You use a phone? A TV? A computer? Have a driver’s license? Insurance? A house loan? Pay property tax? There is no more privacy. It’s a nice goal but not a reality. I doubt Apple gives a flying darn about your or my right to privacy. They are protecting their product and its sales only. If you have an Apple Phone and think it’s private…just dreamin’.