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Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#51

Post by 05 »

zoul wrote: post #7
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #3

What sets Apple apart from Googles and Facebooks is that it's the only company that stores the data in way that Apple itself cannot read it. This is why the others have little to say on the subject - there is no issue of a "backdoor", because there is no wall to begin with when it comes to Google or FB, their business model depends on reading and analyzing your emails and posts.

Don’t the modern Android phones with Trusted Execution Environment do about the same?

Do you seriously expect Samsung to come up with something like that? Because here's what they are shipping so far: http://uk.businessinsider.com/android-phones-fingerprint-sca...

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#52

Post by School-Cotton »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #47
amyjess wrote: post #28

John McAfee has posted his response: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-ill-decrypt-san-b... As usual for him, it's hyperbolic and over the top. It starts with this... > This is a black day and the beginning of the end of the US as a world power. And snowballs into this: > And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gaug…

Not too far off. Obviously nobody would smoke at work for the same reason they probably wouldn't drink, illegality aside. But, what people do outside of work is their own business. If my boss started seriously inquiring about my vices, first thing I'd do that night is update my resume. I've considered federal work before but every time I think hard about it, I keep coming back to the scene in Snow Crash where the fed…

Do you live in China (or Russia) and work for the Chinese (or Russian) government?

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#53

Post by iamdave »

PeCaN wrote: post #42
ignoramous wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just made me realise that Apple is a true "do no evil" company and not Google, for all its technology powress and fancy marketing. A sad realisation as I have been using Google products for almost everything-- they pitch up everything under the F/OSS banner and it's so tempting. I think I should consider moving to iOS pretty seriously. I had been dismissing it for being over-priced and not being OSS. But the tru…

I feel the same way. I don't actually like iOS that much, and historically I haven't liked Apple for their human rights issues, but seeing that they relatively consistently take a stand on privacy is making me consider switching. I don't mind the extra cost that much if I can be assured that the phone is the actual product the company is making money from—not by selling ads targeting me. The problem is that Android p…

Agreed to both, I have a Macbook and that's the only apple product I own (sans mouse and keyboard of course), and I'll almost certainly NEVER use that finger print function on a device connected to the cloud (ostensibly), but I've kind of softened up towards maybe having an iPhone seeing the way Apple straight up tells the government "not just no, but hell no" regarding access to consumer data.

Yet....I love my S6 too damn much

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#54

Post by dingaling »

zoul wrote: post #7
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #3

What sets Apple apart from Googles and Facebooks is that it's the only company that stores the data in way that Apple itself cannot read it. This is why the others have little to say on the subject - there is no issue of a "backdoor", because there is no wall to begin with when it comes to Google or FB, their business model depends on reading and analyzing your emails and posts.

Don’t the modern Android phones with Trusted Execution Environment do about the same?

> Don’t the modern Android phones with Trusted Execution Environment do about the same?

Not from what I've been able to determine doing some research today. Or at leaast they're very poor at advertising it if they do.

Samsung KNOX uses the ARM TrustedZone to provide remte-attestation of running software, but I can't see anything similar to Apple's Secure Enclave for filesystem encryption keys.

If anyone does know an Android phone that does this properly, please let me know and I'll buy two this week. I am very impressed at the engineering Apple have built in this regard.

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#55

Post by [deleted] »

ignoramous wrote: post #37
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #3

What sets Apple apart from Googles and Facebooks is that it's the only company that stores the data in way that Apple itself cannot read it. This is why the others have little to say on the subject - there is no issue of a "backdoor", because there is no wall to begin with when it comes to Google or FB, their business model depends on reading and analyzing your emails and posts.

This just made me realise that Apple is a true "do no evil" company and not Google, for all its technology powress and fancy marketing. A sad realisation as I have been using Google products for almost everything-- they pitch up everything under the F/OSS banner and it's so tempting. I think I should consider moving to iOS pretty seriously. I had been dismissing it for being over-priced and not being OSS. But the tru…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#56

Post by njharman »

Outdoorsman wrote: post #15

I think it's interesting to note that Apple has complied with requests from law enforcement in the past... Of the total number of requests, which Apple references here: http://www.apple.com/privacy/government-information-requests... > 94% were Device Requests--law enforcement seeking a stolen device > 6% were Account Requests--law enforcement seeking personal information > 27% of U.S. account requests received betwee…

If you read the letter, they already said they have, do and will aid law enforcement in any lawful way they are able.

They question the lawfulness of this particular request.

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#57

Post by mahyarm »

vinceguidry wrote: post #43
mintplant wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager that the FBI and CIA are technically capable of breaking the security on this phone. This is likely more about setting legal precedent via a case that is very much in the public eye.

I very much doubt that. These agencies are very capable of operating outside of the law if it will get the job done. All a stunt like this does is raise public awareness, limiting their options. They wouldn't do that unless they couldn't get it done via other means. Only the fact that this is a terror case makes them willing to roll the dice at all on the craps table of public opinion. It gives them an advantage, but…

Well for a million + they could delaminate the chips and read the private keys off them in a painstaking way.

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#58

Post by return0 »

SquareWheel wrote: post #50
herge wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple also makes most of it's money by selling phones, not user information...

>Apple also makes most of it's money by selling phones, not user information... Google is the advertiser. I'm surprised how often people make this mistake. They don't sell user data to other advertisers. This not only goes against their terms of service, but also makes no business sense. Why would they give up their best signal for targeted ads?

It's like keeping the cow and selling the milk. It's pedantic, but google is collecting rent from user information.

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#59

Post by [deleted] »

ignoramous wrote: post #37
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #3

What sets Apple apart from Googles and Facebooks is that it's the only company that stores the data in way that Apple itself cannot read it. This is why the others have little to say on the subject - there is no issue of a "backdoor", because there is no wall to begin with when it comes to Google or FB, their business model depends on reading and analyzing your emails and posts.

This just made me realise that Apple is a true "do no evil" company and not Google, for all its technology powress and fancy marketing. A sad realisation as I have been using Google products for almost everything-- they pitch up everything under the F/OSS banner and it's so tempting. I think I should consider moving to iOS pretty seriously. I had been dismissing it for being over-priced and not being OSS. But the tru…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Letter on iPhone Security Draws Muted Tech Industry Response

#60

Post by 05 »

davidamarquis wrote: post #22
vinceguidry wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, that's a laugh. If it were an Android phone, the feds wouldn't have had to call anyone. They'd have just broken the device's security and gotten what they wanted. Only Apple takes security seriously .

This is a recent development. Apple only started to care about iOS security around 2012 for example.

Oh really? iOS has page-based executable code hash/signing since at least iOS 2 (2008); Android still doesn't have any runtime code integrity protections.
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