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FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

thehill.com

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Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#72
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rights are more important than lives. The United States has spent the lives hundreds of thousands of soldiers in defense of those rights. We should no more surrender those rights to fear and alarmism than we would surrender them to a foreign invader.

I agree. But we aren't just surrendering our rights to fear and alarmism. We are surrendering our rights to authoritarians (and they are bi-partisan, by the way).

You'll get no argument from me. Both parties would happily burn the Constitution if they had a chance to scorch the other one with the flames.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#73

Why is it important that the FBI can access that person’s phone?

I'm wondering this too. The person already killed a bunch of people. The person is dead. What more to they hope to gain? Some secret cell of others? Unlikely .. and if there is, why not regular warrants, wiretaps, e-mail searches, etc. They already have sooo many tools they can use, both with a warrant and bypassing it via FISA. They had all this domestic spying stuff and still couldn't prevent the shooting! They get…

I largely agree that they likely gain little from accessing the phone (though they may further understand motive/sources of radicalisation from what he was looking at before the shooting), but it would seem negligent not to check if they have access to it. It doesn't seem to warrant spending significant resources finding a way into it, though (unless they have reason to suspect the involvement of a third-party), or justify calling for a backdoor.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#74
post #12

“It is prudent to anticipate that a major incident may well occur at any time that will galvanize public opinion on these issues ... Whether we end up with legislation or not, the best course for everyone involved is to work soberly and in good faith together to craft appropriate solutions, rather than have outcomes dictated during a crisis.” -- AG William Barr, July 23 2019 "Never let a good crisis go to waste" -- W…

Work soberly and in good faith to implement crisis outcomes now, instead of waiting for a crisis. Brilliant strategy.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#75
post #65
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s an iPhone, the data is encrypted with a key derived from the PIN and a random key that is baked into the phone’s CPU. The CPU has instructions for encrypting and decrypting with this secret key but no instruction for reading the key directly. Short of decapping the chip and going in with an electron microscope to figure out what this key is, your only option is to brute force on the phone’s own CPU. But that…

So why don't they decap the chip and go in with an electron microscope? Has that type of exploit ever been successfully used against modern devices, or is it only a theoretical vulnerability?

Usually, you don't want to work with the original, only on copies. Here we are talking about a one shot attempt to get info by destroying the hardware... I can see those people searching for any other way first.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#76
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably to understand motive, and check for potential involvement of others. And whilst they have a metric shit-ton of spying capabilities on US civilians, those are not really intended to avoid crime. (Maybe the shift of perception of what is terrorism might change that, though)

He posted a manifesto online. Think his motive was pretty clearly outlined in it.

So far as I can tell, the Dayton shooter didn't leave a manifesto:

> The Dayton shooter left no manifesto.

https://www.vox.com/2019/8/7/20758473/trump-invasion-el-paso...

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#77

Why is it important that the FBI can access that person’s phone?

Because saying "he's dead so this is the end of the matter" is unwise and it's worrying you're even asking this.

. Were other people involved?

. or other organisations such as extremists organisations?

. Did he have people egging him on (even if totally uninvolved otherwise), or was he a complete loner?

. Is there a hidden motive here that's not obvious?

. Further evidence of stable and rational thinking, or mentally unstable?

. Is it possible he was aided by legal loopholes, or some failures in process that need patching?

. Could he have left any nasty surprises behind?

. Does his behaviour indicate something that would allow prediction of similar crimes and perhaps their thwarting?

. Photos/films of something of interest like supporters, discussions of further action, whatever

In this case, once a crime is committed, all info needs to be gathered. I'm saying that as someone who is disturbed at extensions of state powers, but once there's a crime, I'm all for picking up everything and analysing it.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#78
Law enforcement needs to go back to old-school detective techniques if they really need that phone data. Encryption is code, code is speech. Encryption keeps banks safe from criminals.

Are we going to go through this for every administration now?

Even if you do not have a problem with giving government keys to, say, the iPhone, then you have to deal with every piece of software someone writes to enable encryption.

You'd literally have to convince every person in the world to not write or use encryption software in "the wrong" ways. And, that's impossible because encryption exists to protect society from criminals. I don't see another way around this.

Re: FBI tells lawmakers it can't access Dayton gunman's phone

#80
post #52

Is the American government position “Guns don’t kill people, encryption kills people”, or am I just combining the personal opinions of a bunch of unrelated people who work for the government?

It really does seem to be that is the position. There are a lot of backwards nutjobs in the government right now, blaming other backwards nutjobs, while the rest of us sane people are trying to duct tape society together. Guns don't kill people, encryption doesn't kill people, backwards nutjobs kill people. Politics in America, currently, can entirely be summed up as the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme.

More like guns either kill people or look pretty on a wall; encryption not only can't kill people, it also prevents people from stealing.

Even a nutjob armed with the latest encryption, still needs a gun to kill people.

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