Hyperbole, Apple vs the FBI and ignorant politicians.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
“Apple chose to protect a dead ISIS terrorist’s privacy over the security of the American people”
A staggering display of ignorance from Senator Tom Cotton as he tries desperately to scare the public, and complicit media into bullying Apple into submission or painting Apple as a terror-enabler. If you want to read a bunch of loaded language click his name! He manages to imply that Apple is the platform of choice for pedophiles, and many other criminals.
Do you remember the era before smart phones, when the police couldn’t solve one crime?
The FBI is not asking for access to just the phones of the San Bernardino shooters, they want a back door to all phones, tablets and computers. The public do not trust the government to not repeat the Fusion Centres Fiasco and other examples of mission creep.
Their third demand / request is probably the most disgusting, they want the ability to unlock your device over Wifi or Bluetooth… If you understand these protocols you would be terrified of the potential maelstrom of vulnerability this will open up.
Apple, and Tim Cook have painted a huge target on themselves now, and the right wing and associated media arms are already using everything in their Arsenals to sow fear and have just stopped short of calling Mr. Cook hitler.. So far.
Some other brave CEO’s and management have shown their support, Sundar Pichai half-assed it slightly IMO, but at least even google are pretending to care.
If the U.S. Tech community banded together they have nothing to lose except credibility to the rest of the world. Since the last NSA exposure, most of the world do not trust Cisco, Microsoft, Google or any hardware / software that was designed in the USA or had NSA interference..
While this is all being argued and the fear is provoked in the citizenry, you can do a few things to help make their surveillance a little trickier
- If you run a web site, at least turn on SSL. Let’s Encrypt is a good, free service but there are many paid options for those who might be a little “scared of a CLI.” Sponsored by many of the corps who lost a lot of good will thanks to the NSA.
- If you’re not using an iPhone (or even if you do) stop using such non secure chat platforms, Signal is a great client and runs on computers as well as android, iOS.
The sad truth about terrorists and encryption is, if they are planning a suicide attack or plan to die during the operation, they historically do not use encryption at all. Plain text SMS, phone calls, everything out in the open as their time is short and they do not care if the texts are intercepted after the fact. IS distributes guides on how to protect their data but in general, speed and convenience are favoured over slightly slower encryption and information security during operations.
The only terrorists who practise good infoSec are typically the leaders, who do not use any phones or technology at all. Some are state sponsored or protected and the states either do not let them or advise them – I wonder if the ISI advised Osama Bin Laden or if it was his old training. He communicated by mouth, trusted messengers, and survived the 90's with Bill Clinton trying to cruise missile attack him from a submarine during his presidency. Bush at War by Woodward covers this interesting subject.
#iStandWithApple #iStandWithTrumbo
(Edited) I just saw Trumbo, this film is a Must See right now!
