Apple Ordered to Help FBI Recover Data From San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone 5c

[MacRumors]

A U.S. Federal judge today ordered Apple to help federal investigators access data on the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, reports NBC News. According to court papers, Apple "declined to provide [assistance] voluntarily."

The judge ruled Tuesday that the Cupertino-based company had to provide "reasonable technical assistance" to the government in recovering data from the iPhone 5c, including bypassing the auto-erase function and allowing investigators to submit an unlimited number of passwords in their attempts to unlock the phone. Apple has five days to respond to the court if it believes that compliance would be "unreasonably burdensome."

Prosecutors argued that despite providing a warrant authorizing the search of Farook's device, the "government was unable to complete the search because it cannot access the iPhone's encrypted content." The FBI argued that Apple has the "technical means" to assist the government and, in a statement, U.S. attorney Eileen M. Decker said that the order was a "potentially important step" in finding out "everything we possibly can" about the San Bernardino attack.

Authorities said they were able to access several backups of Farook's iCloud data, which were saved a month before the attack took place. Prosecutors argued that the evidence in his iCloud account indicated he was in communication with both his victims and his wife, who assisted him in the attack. They allege he may have disabled iCloud data saves after that point to hide further potential evidence.

Last October, the Cupertino company reiterated that it "would be impossible" for the company to access data on a device using iOS 8 or later, but federal authorities are asking Apple to disable a feature that erases the iPhone's data after a certain number of failed password attempts. It's not clear if Apple is able to do so.

Apple stopped storing encryption keys after the release of iOS 8, making it impossible for the company to bypass passcodes to gain access to a device. Additionally, Apple CEO Tim Cook has consistently insisted that providing back-door access past its encryption for authorities would open the door for "bad guys" to gain access to its users' data.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Ordered to Help FBI Recover Data From San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone 5c

 

[budselectjr]

Stay strong Apple.

 

[DipDog3]

The iPhone is encrypted with a combination of the passcode and hardware key. Without the auto-wipe, the FBI will be able to try all of the combinations until they find the right one.

But running all of the combinations on the phone itself, can take over 5 years for a six-digit lower-case password mixing numbers and letters.

So the FBI will need brute force it on a supercomputer, but that would require the hardware key, which is built into the phone. Apple does not know the hardware key. The FBI would have to extract the key by melting the plastic off the chip and hitting it with bursts of lasers to hopefully recover bits of the key.

With a supercomputer, the FBI could crack a simple six-digit numeric code in about 22 hours, but a complex alpha-numeric password could take over 10 years.

 

[garirry]

Even though there are things I don't like about post-Jobs Apple, their concern for privacy is one thing I have to give them credit for. I bet that they won't disable the auto-erase features and they certainly won't allow people without a password to access backuped data (assuming they save any of their data) just because of some stupid paranoid government.

 

[furi0usbee]

So if Apple is able to turn off the auto-erase after 10 tries, and let someone try unlimited passwords. Well, if they used a 4 digit PIN, that means essentially there IS a backdoor to get in, as it won't take very long to try out all the combinations. This case could shed light on what exactly Apple *can* do with our phones, even if we lock them down to their fullest.

 

[farewelwilliams]

well...that tells us that at least one person bought an iphone 5c

 

[73b]

If even the FBI can't get in, Apple is doing something right.

 

[Sedulous]

I thought Apple already made it pretty clear there are no backdoors.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

I really wonder if this case will reach the Supreme Court.

 

[cclloyd]

"Apple ordered to hack into mainframe because FBI understands technology"

 

[ghost187]

The privacy of our intellectual data will be my top priority when it comes to voting in the next election.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

The privacy of our intellectual data will be my top priority when it comes to voting in the next election.

Well Sanders is your only option then.

 

[JimmyHook]

It won't help the FBI. For other users, enable "complex passcode". An alpha numeric passcode would be unbeatable even with unlimited tries if you have a 5s and above.

 

[ineedamac]

This is tough for me. On one hand I want my device to be secure. One the other hand I want to stop terrorists etc.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

perhaps I will upgrade from IOS 7 to IOS 8 now ….

Between the lines the US-authorities say: "Be part of the criminals that give us access to ALL Phones and computers on earth!"
Microsoft does, Google does, Amazon does, Western digital does, all US- manufacturers of NAS and Internet-routers do, and apple did at least until 2012… it´s worse than in Orwells novels...

 

[AFDoc]

well...that tells us that at least one person bought an iphone 5c

LoL this was classsic!!

I for one don't care what's on the phone.... if they can't figure things out without the info then they aren't very good at their jobs. Stay strong apple... F the police, FBI, or any other "authority" that tries to force a company to betray one of it's customers.... even if that customer was a douche.

 

[You are the One]

I pray for America. You are run by a psychopathic and satanistic criminal cabal. Please wake up.

Let’s suppose America’s elections are rigged, that Bush was never fairly elected, that congress is bought and paid for with drug money and that America’s courts, media and police are totally corrupt, run by drug cartels or paid off by foreign intelligence services.

Then, were this last statement a safe assumption, and I believe this to be the case, wouldn’t every political, intellectual and social function that failed to take these “facts” into account be nothing more than folly and delusion

Problem-Reaction-Solution. That's how things work. Create a trauma, blame the unability to solve it on encryption, get rid of encryption. Move on. Same in Paris.

 

[Jeremy1026]

The iPhone is encrypted with a combination of the passcode and hardware key. Without the auto-wipe, the FBI will be able to try all of the combinations until they find the right one.

But running all of the combinations on the phone itself, can take over 5 years for a six-digit lower-case password mixing numbers and letters.

So the FBI will need brute force it on a supercomputer, but that would require the hardware key, which is built into the phone. Apple does not know the hardware key. The FBI would have to extract the key by melting the plastic off the chip and hitting it with bursts of lasers to hopefully recover bits of the key.

With a supercomputer, the FBI could crack a simple six-digit numeric code in about 22 hours, but a complex alpha-numeric password could take over 10 years.

Odds are its just a 4-digit passcode though. A small minority of users actually use the alpha-numeric passcode option.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Well, if they used a 4 digit PIN, that means essentially there IS a backdoor to get in, as it won't take very long to try out all the combinations. This case could shed light on what exactly Apple *can* do with our phones, even if we lock them down to their fullest.

The fullest you can lock the phone down isn't a 4 digit passcode, though. I'm pretty sure you can set it to any length passcode and it can include unicode.

 

[easy4lif]

It wont be any government that ends Apple's privacy protections, it will be people who sue for billions when the next attack happens and they find iphones on the dead bodies of the attackers.

Before you saw that wont happen,... Lots of people couldnt believe a man sued over hot coffee and won, or wealth could be an excuse a kid uses to get away with murder.

 

[2010mini]

can't his texts also be accessed from his cellular provider? How about websites he visited on his iPhone while he was home on his network or even on cellular data? His ISP would be able to access that data, no? All his social media posts are also up for grabs... So what other data are they looking for?

They were able to access his iCloud info but are having a hard time breaking the screen lock code? Wut?

 

[techwhiz]

You might be able to stop the wipe after X-attrmepts if you already had access to the device.
Being able to disable auto-wipe implies a backdoor.

If the FBI was smart, they would remove the flash from the phone and send the chips to the NSA.
You don't need the whole phone only the flash in a chip socket.
Ask Apple for the layout of the OS and data. Crank away...

 

[Bubba Satori]

The dead have no privacy.

 

[The Doctor11]

They want to enter an unlimited number of passwords, the only way I can think of this being done is if Apple installs a special OS on the devices that doesn't have the delete after 10 feature. At this point wouldn't just be easiest to install an OS that doesn't have passwords at all?

 

[Kaibelf]

Odds are its just a 4-digit passcode though. A small minority of users actually use the alpha-numeric passcode option.

A small minority are also terrorists. Those people would be more likely to, you know, hide things more securely than some fool working at the mall.