Posted on 03/14/2016 8:47:42 AM PDT by dennisw
The FBI could demand that Apple turns over its source code and private key to the iPhone's operating system, the Justice Dept. implied in its latest filing against the tech giant.
The government's response aims to target a critical argument made by Apple -- that compelling the company to rewrite its iOS software to remove security features in order to allow federal agents to bypass the passcode on the San Bernardino shooter's phone would be overly "burdensome."
"The government did not seek to compel Apple to turn those over because it believed such a request would be less palatable to Apple," said federal prosecutors in a footnote in its March 10 filing. "If Apple would prefer that course, however, that may provide an alternative that requires less labor by Apple programmers."
Some case watchers saw the citation as more indicative of a threat than a technological suggestion.
A Justice Dept. spokesperson said the agency will "let the filing speak for itself," but added the citation in question was an alternative, rather than a position taken.
By its own admission, the Justice Dept. set this precedent in its 2013 case against Lavabit, the encrypted email provider said to have been used by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"I think [the government] is setting up the possibility of demanding the key and the source code," said Lavabit founder Ladar Levison, speaking on the phone.
Levison drew parallels between his case and the fight that Apple currently has on its hands.
He too was compelled by the government to provide "technical assistance" to help the FBI install a pen register device to obtain metadata on an Lavabit account -- thought to be Snowden's but that was never formally confirmed as the case remains under seal. Levison forcibly shut down his encrypted email service after federal agents later demanded that he turn over his master encryption key, which he said would give agents access to every one of his customers' data.
"It's rather disturbing that the government is relying on the authority they obtained by railroading a small business in a secret court proceeding to justify demanding the key from Apple now," he said.
Right or wrong......The party is over for Apple. They are Obama voters and now Obama’s FBI is going to ream them out.
I think if i were Apple.....I would smile back at the FBI and hint that I’m just about ready to move the company to Switzerland....taking every single developer along with me.
I think that's what that mega data center in Utah is for.
It might take ten years, or it might take fifty years, but it will happen, if this case goes against Apple.
It will probably happen anyway.
I think you are wrong on this one.
Apple went toe-to-toe with Intel, Microsoft and IBM to the point it almost sank their company.
Only when it was obvious that simply switching from IBM to Intel processors would transform the company did they change.
No one understands security better than Silicon Valley companies.
They fight corporate infiltrators daily.
We used to have cars parked in Intel parking lots with cell phone scanners trying to access any corporate secrets.
People follow Intel cars during lunch to steal computers from the trunks.
Apple won’t fold.
Can the FBI ask Colonel Sanders for his “secret recipe” now? Just askin’ (sarc).
They'll have to leave their new "Mother Ship" Headquarters to do that. That'll go over big.
ok so if apple gives the FBI what it wants..... does the NSA FBI DOD and other government agencies STOP SPYING ON US CITIZENS...???
APPLE should stand firm....
the phone companies and isps have all the data.... who is kidding who here?
Apple should just give up on the idea of marketing a Fourth Amendment defeating product.
A product that has to be delivered to Apple to be decrypted would satisfy the legitimate market.
Back-alley encryption products will quickly become cheaper for people who want to evade the law anyway.
Does intellectual property covered under the 5th amendment?
If they want source code, give ‘em source; an un-commented,raw hexadecimal dump of the OS should keep FBI weenies busy reconstructing for a few years - time enough to make a fresh OS and push it out to all the phones again.
The government does not have the right to demand a copy of anyone’s intellectual property.
Once the precedence is set that the fbi can demand IP you can say good-bye to any foreign companies keeping IP (and associated jobs) in offices in the USA.
And, when multi-national mergers occur there’s another reason for the new company to be located outside the US.
Hmmm, eminent domain? Kelo? I wonder.
Ping.
From that angle, they could just point them to the public iOS download link and suggest they reverse engineer it (there are many good tools out there).
There is ENORMOUS pressure to acquire the source code. Some will pay a million dollars for a single jailbreak hack, which would likely be blocked in a matter of days. Stolen source code would bring much more on the black market.
Ping.
The FBI would get NOWHERE by “demanding Apple’s source code.
That’s ridiculous!
If the American government Acquires Apple’s source code then, I guarantee you, within weeks, if not days, the whole world will have Apple’s source code and the world will be swamped in counterfeit Apple iPhones.
The American government will have done what it is become very good at, strangling our economy and impoverishing us.
They will invent a way to do whatever they want.
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