Apple Refuses Court Order Over Phone Encryption

Don't Kill Bill said:
OK so the analogy breaks down there but lets imagine in the near future everyone has unbreakable encrypted data. Now the pervert next door takes voyeur naked pictures of your daughter. Then he starts selling those pictures across the internet to anyone who pays for them. The police can never prove anything because the pictures are coded in unbreakable encryption.
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That's not the same at all, in order to share the images the cypher key would also need to be shared. The encryption that Apple apply to an iPhone relates just to the device it is on, if you share data from that device with someone else then it's a completely different scenario.
 
Phurry said:
That's not the same at all, in order to share the images the cypher key would also need to be shared. The encryption that Apple apply to an iPhone relates just to the device it is on, if you share data from that device with someone else then it's a completely different scenario.
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Its not though because we are looking at the next step. If you argue that the police have no right to break encrypted data on your phone then it follows that they have no right to break encrypted data that you send.
 
Don't Kill Bill said:
Its not though because we are looking at the next step. If you argue that the police have no right to break encrypted data on your phone then it follows that they have no right to break encrypted data that you send.
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No, the point is, encryption for sharing data is a completely different technical issue. It's (relatively) easier to break encryption on shared data because of the need to share the encryption algorithm, hence your scenario isn't comparable to the current debate.
 
This case is narrow but the implications are very much wider.This is not just about encrypted data on phones . It is also about the bigger question of right to access encrypted data. The method of encryption will be copied onto computer hard drives for instance which will then be unbreakable. Once you accept that on a legal basis the police have no right to access encrypted data then I think the rest follows.
 
Fearless said:
I have two friends on life-support from the Turkey attack.

I'm sure their family and medical team will take great comfort from that fact.
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Anecdotal.

I'm sure their families and medical team will take great comfort in you using the tragedy of their situations to score points on the internet.
 
Fearless said:
I have two friends on life-support from the Turkey attack.

I'm sure their family and medical team will take great comfort from that fact.
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Regardless of anything else, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope they make a full recovery... keep us posted.
 
They have apparently successfully broken into the phone.
 
Phew! that was lucky. I wonder if a countdown timer was going as the agent, sweating profusely, was cracking the phone.
 
So...will the FBI ever tell us what was on the phone? I can see 4 options...
  1. They refuse
  2. They disclose the contents and admit there's nothing useful on the phone
  3. They disclose the contents and all it contains is details of the original plot which are already known
  4. They disclose that the contents of the phone have enabled them to stop a further attack
IMO, the 1st & 2nd, to the public's way of thinking, would amount to the same thing. The 3rd I don't think gives the FBI anything either in terms of leverage for future cases. The only chance they have of "winning" anything from the entire situation is if the 4th option happens, but I think that's easily the least likely of the outcomes if the terrorists have been using any form of cell based operation (especially with the delay & publicity meaning that even the stupidest of terror groups will have shutdown anything that the original pair had contact with/knowledge of).
 
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