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The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

bloomberg.com

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#31

So basically the NSA/CIA develop the tech, license it to a contractor, who the FBI can then hire. Got it. I bet they know who to use it on before they even need to through Parallel Construction too. This is what the future looks like.

There are many outside the NSA capable of developing brute force security bypass for the right price.

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#32
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that in many ways Japan is more important an ally than Israel.

Far more importantly, strategically. But Japan has a fairly firm and stable political position compared to Israel. So it does not weigh on either side.

Israel's political position is not under serious threat except maybe the governance of the occupied territories. I suppose they have more vocal allies in the US Congress.

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#33
post #2

Cellebrite is an Israeli company, not Japanese. They are owned by a Japanese parent company, but I'd argue that is not the same. Volkswagen owning 100% of Lamborghini does not make the latter a german car manufacturer.

Yeah, I'd say that this is actually a piece intended to try to prevent any political fallout with a close ally of the US (Israel) at the expense of the nuclear whipping boy (Japan).

Can you produce any evidence to support your theory?

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#34

> "... built its business on pinball game machines and stumbled into the mobile phone security business almost by accident." (first paragraph) Pinball? In Japan? this isn't going to be pinball. > "has been building pinball-like game machines found in Japan’s pachinko parlors since the 1970s" (third paragraph). So it isn't pinball at all, it's pachinko. I know this is almost besides the point, but do Bloomberg really…

It turns out Pachinko and Pinball are derived form the same ancestor. A surprisingly good history of it is here: http://elblancosretroworld.blogspot.com/2013/10/revenge-of-g...

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd say that this is actually a piece intended to try to prevent any political fallout with a close ally of the US (Israel) at the expense of the nuclear whipping boy (Japan).

Can you produce any evidence to support your theory?

The headline is evidence for his theory. It's just not particularly strong.

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#36
post #2

Cellebrite is an Israeli company, not Japanese. They are owned by a Japanese parent company, but I'd argue that is not the same. Volkswagen owning 100% of Lamborghini does not make the latter a german car manufacturer.

Ok, we've made the title just say "Firm".

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#37

> "... built its business on pinball game machines and stumbled into the mobile phone security business almost by accident." (first paragraph) Pinball? In Japan? this isn't going to be pinball. > "has been building pinball-like game machines found in Japan’s pachinko parlors since the 1970s" (third paragraph). So it isn't pinball at all, it's pachinko. I know this is almost besides the point, but do Bloomberg really…

It's kind of fair that they assume people might not know what pachinko is, but I'd say "slot machine" would be a far better comparison than "pinball machine".

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#38
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd say that this is actually a piece intended to try to prevent any political fallout with a close ally of the US (Israel) at the expense of the nuclear whipping boy (Japan).

I'd say this is mainly financial news, where the ownership and stock market representation is actually relevant. But it's a very weak piece to learn much about Cellebrite, and makes it sound like they build pinball machines and games before hacking iPhones.

It sounds like Cellebrite employees are largely ex unit 8200 members (Israel's SIGNIT program).[1] The article really doesn't seem to talk about Cellebrite's history much at all.

[1]http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fbi-cracks-the-locked-iphone-... (he says unit 822 :/, doh)

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#39
post #2

Cellebrite is an Israeli company, not Japanese. They are owned by a Japanese parent company, but I'd argue that is not the same. Volkswagen owning 100% of Lamborghini does not make the latter a german car manufacturer.

Yeah, I'd say that this is actually a piece intended to try to prevent any political fallout with a close ally of the US (Israel) at the expense of the nuclear whipping boy (Japan).

Israeli company helping the FBI investigate a terrorist's phone. Why would this cause political fallout? That's exactly what allies are supposed to do for each other.

Re: The Little-Known Firm Helping the FBI Crack iPhones

#40
post #4

Given Apple's almost unlimited cash they could always make companies like this an offer no intelligent person could turn down (especially if public) and have them explain what they do.

They don't need to. It seems to be widely accepted that they most likely used NVRAM cloning.
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