Apple and the FBI dance a security tango
Troy Hunt successfully frames the context of Apple vs the FBI court order in his must read post, but ignores an important question. What is on the iPhone that is so important to the FBI that they would go to this length to get it? This is the first time that a court has ordered a technology company to develop new software requiring Apple to backdoor their own iOS system.
In October 2015 Obama agreed to stop pressing for legislation for encryption backdoors in technology products. Now Bloomberg highlights that this was a tactical change in direction and not a policy change.
“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.”
The New York Times has taken the position this is a classic single case of a terrorist investigation, but fails to discuss the potential value of a dead man’s work phone as well. The NYT discusses Apple’s business value and the Justice Departments criticism, but completely ignores the value of a non-personal phone in a terrorist investigation. Since Farook destroyed his personal phone, it reasons there is nothing on his work phone, otherwise it would have been destroyed as well. Snowden points out that the FBI already likely has any information which could be reasonably extracted from this phone.
The FBI knows that Apple cannot get into the iOS 8 iPhone 5c without changing their software. The FBI also knows that Apple cannot physically get into the next generation of iPhone 6s running iOS9 due to improvements in the “Secure Enclave”. Therefor the window of opportunity to get into iPhones during future investigations is closing. If the FBI does not challenge Apple now, they will lose the ability to get evidence off future phones.
With this understanding, the EFF’s statement is very clear.
“It might seem the FBI wouldn't go through such a public battle if they had a secret way to get the data, but even if they did it's likely they wanted to take this case to court because the high-profile nature of the San Bernardino shootings makes this a sympathetic case to create a legal precedent in their favor.”
Apple’s public letter response to this order does not highlight the additional cost and challenges presented by the order but focuses on the dangers to civil liberty should the order set a legal precedent. Rightly or wrongly this is a master stroke from Apple, diverting attention from annoyed user base increasingly upset with software decisions and instead rallying the troops around issues in Civil Liberties.
Apple is hardware company, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft (minus Surface & Xbox) are not. This is why Apple is publicly starting this conversation in response to this court order. Should they lose this appeal, security conscious consumers will evaluate their options. International nations will also place pressure on Apple to decrypt phones in their home countries. Countries where human rights abuses take place, citizens will be less safe. This is a very important conversation for us to have about the future of Privacy, Censorship and Security in our country. But make no mistake about it, this is a strategic long term decision the FBI is leading.
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