FBI Tells Apple They Don't Need Their Geek's Help

[Jarlaxle]

So do you not think that Apple (or any other tech company) has a legitimate business interest in keeping its products safe from hackers?

No...Jim seems to be entirely comfortable with Big Brother.

[Crackpot]

It wouldn't surprise me if it was Apple that found the security flaw and supplied the information to the govt (which was likly fixed in the recent patch)

I recall the phone in question (an early iPhone 5) was two (soon to be three) full generations short of Apple's current security.

Your confusing hardware with OS. To my knowledge iPhone 5s are fully supported by the latest iOS

[Jarlaxle]

Did it HAVE the latest OS and security?

[Crackpot]

I believe it was at least up to date to what was available at the time.

[Bicycle Bill]

I believe it was at least up to date to what was available at the time.

Which might have been the original version of iOS 9 (iOS 9.0), which came out in Sept or Oct of 2015.

I agree with Crackpot.  It has been my experience that a lot of the iTards migrate to the newest OS upgrade as soon as possible.
Sheeple, you know?

-"BB"-

[Gob]

Tens of millions of bestselling smartphones can easily be hacked by criminals using a £120 device that cracks their four-digit passcode.



An investigation by The Mail on Sunday found the gadget, sold openly on the internet, could be used to gain access to private and confidential details stored on Apple iPhones, including photographs, emails, contact details and call histories.

Using the device – called an IP Box – this newspaper was able to break the passcode of an Apple iPhone 5C, the model that America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation had been fighting to access in order to gain information about a terrorist massacre.

The FBI entered a high-stakes legal battle with Apple over the handset belonging to Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after the couple killed 14 people in December in San Bernardino, California.

Apple had refused to help investigators find the code to unlock the murderer’s phone, saying it feared it would set a legal precedent and allow law enforcement officials to probe the contents of millions of its phones in future investigations.

After a two-month stalemate, the FBI last week announced it had finally broken the four-digit code, finding the right sequence out of a possible 10,000 numeric combinations. But what took the FBI weeks can apparently be done in a matter of hours with devices like the IP Box, which launch a ‘brute force’ attack on the password by going through all the possible combinations until it finds the right one.

Normally, iPhones are disabled once five wrong attempts are entered but the IP Box is able to keep trying codes.

Other devices such as iPads and mini iPads are also susceptible to the attack.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z44iUfHkiu
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[Econoline]

Normally, iPhones are disabled once five wrong attempts are entered but the IP Box is able to keep trying codes.

So...it's just magic, then?

[Bicycle Bill]

Just going to mention that the Germans thought their "Enigma" machine in WWII was uncrackable, and the Japanese High Command thought their codes code never be broken.  Guess what?  'Enigma' was cracked, and the Japanese codes were broken, and the Allies were getting the messages almost as fast as the intended recipients were.

The Americans also tried an "unbreakable" system with the Navajo "Code Talkers" — who verbally communicated coded messages in their native language; a language that was strictly an oral (non-written) language.  It seemed to have been effective, but if push had ever come down to shove, I'll betcha that someone, somewhere would have been able to find a way to understand the Navajo as well.

The point to draw from this is that no matter how good or secure you try to make something, sooner or later some other smart bastard is going to find a way around it.

-"BB"-