Trump Attacks Apple

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:39 am

SAN BERNARDINO SHOOTING: Trump urges boycott of Apple until it unlocks shooter's iPhone

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Myrtle Beach Sports Center on Feb. 19, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Myrtle Beach Sports Center on Feb. 19, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Donald Trump escalated his attack on Apple Inc. on the final day of campaigning before the Republican primary in South Carolina, calling for a boycott until Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook honors a court order to unlock a terrorist's iPhone.

"Boycott Apple until they give up the information," Trump said at a rally in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. "The phone is owned by the government... Tim Cook is looking to do a big number probably to show how liberal he is. Apple should give up."

The billionaire's call to action followed an interview with Bloomberg in which he offered harsh words for Cook.

"Tim Cook is living in the world of the make believe," Trump said Friday in a telephone interview. "I would come down so hard on him -- you have no idea -- his head would be spinning all of the way back to Silicon Valley."

Apple's fight with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over access to mobile devices escalated this week when a court ordered the company to help federal law enforcement officers unlock a phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters in a deadly Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino, California.

In an open letter posted on the company's website, Cook described the request as an “unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers” and called for a public debate. The company vowed to fight the order.

Several Silicon Valley companies, including executives from Google and Twitter, rallied to Apple's side. Reform Government Surveillance, a group representing companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc., issued a statement on Wednesday reiterating that, while it’s “extremely important” to deter crime and terrorism, no company should be required to build backdoors to their own technology.

"I think Tim Cook is totally out of line and I think the government should come down on Tim Cook very, very hard," Trump said in the interview Friday. "I think it's a disgrace what he is doing, we're talking about lives, potentially thousands of lives, and we should find out who else was involved in the plot where 14 people were killed."

But that was before Trump announced his call to boycott the company, which he said was a spur of the moment decision as he spoke to supporters in Pawleys Island.

"OK -- what I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such a time as they give that security number," Trump said. "How do you like that? I just thought of it. Boycott Apple."

source

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:07 am

Here's what I have a hard time understanding...

(let me stipulate that I absolutely believe the encryption code in the phone of these murderous terrorists should be broken, and shame on Apple for not co-operating)

How can it be that a private company, (even one as wealthy as Apple...though somewhat less wealthy than it has been...have you looked at what's happened to its stock price recently?) can devise an encryption code so sophisticated that the United States government, with all its resources...(which are a bit more than those available to Apple) can't crack it on its own?

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense...

When the US and her allies were cracking the German "Enigma" and Japanese "Purple" encryption codes, we were able to do it without help from the manufacturers...

BoSoxGal · Post by **BoSoxGal** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:31 am

They would be able to crack it, with sufficient opportunity - that's not something even sophisticated hackers can do in just a few attempts (think Abby on NCIS).

The thing the government wants from Apple isn't to crack the code, but to write software that disables the automatic security function that wipes all the data from the phone after a number of failed attempts to login; that safeguard is there to protect the phone's owner from identity/data theft if the phone is stolen.

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:54 am

write software that disables the automatic security function that wipes all the data from the phone after a number of failed attempts to login

So, all a terrorist has to do if they're facing capture or exposure, is to make multiple deliberately failed attempts to access their phone, and all their communications are lost forever?

I've got a problem with that...

ETA:

Sounds like a good starting point for the next season of Homeland...

ETA II:

"The Apple iPhone...The preferred smart phone for discerning international terrorists, the world over"

Catchy slogan...

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:58 am

Lord Jim wrote: How can it be that a private company, (even one as wealthy as Apple...though somewhat less wealthy than it has been...have you looked at what's happened to its stock price recently?) can devise an encryption code so sophisticated that the United States government, with all its resources...(which are a bit more than those available to Apple) can't crack it on its own?

If US government agents had the ability to break encryption codes, they would have open access to all computers in the world and nothing could be kept secret from them. They wouldn't need Apple's help to break open iPhones. Obviously, we don't have that ability or this case wouldn't be an issue.

Today's encrypted data has billions of quadrillions of possible combinations that would need to be tried in order to unlock it. What's higher than quadrillion? Brazilian? Even the fastest computer might take a Brazilian years to crack the encrypted codes of today.

I agree with Apple on this issue. We should not allow the government to order a company to create software that will unlock a security code that was created in order to protect everyone's right to privacy. Once the government acquires that ability, nothing we do will ever be private.

wesw · Post by **wesw** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:16 am

the guy from McAfee says he can crack the code in three weeks without creating a backdoor.

he also says that he has better hackers than the FBI because the FBI won t hire someone with a 24 inch Mohawk who demands to smoke pot while working....

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:26 am

If US government agents had the ability to break encryption codes, they would have open access to all computers in the world and nothing could be kept secret from them.

You mean like the Chinese?

Frankly, I'm a lot more concerned about terrorists being able to conceal their activities than I am about the US government knowing what I bought at Safeway...(like they would care... and Safeway already knows)

Joe, it's attitudes like yours that are making Donald Trump popular...

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:28 am

From this link

John McAfee said,

So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.

If you doubt my credentials, Google "cybersecurity legend" and see whose name is the only name that appears in the first 10 results out of more than a quarter of a million.

If he can do what he claims he can do, encryption isn't as secure as we've been led to believe.

BoSoxGal · Post by **BoSoxGal** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:34 am

John McAfee is mentally ill, you know.

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:40 am

Lord Jim wrote:Joe, it's attitudes like yours that are making Donald Trump popular...

Face it, Jim. Trump is your party's main man...

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:44 am

If he can do what he claims he can do, encryption isn't as secure as we've been led to believe.

I would like to believe that this is all a clever feint on the part of the government...

That this "we can't break Apple's encryption" is part of a cunning plan to lull the bad guys into a false sense of security...

Unfortunately, the record suggests that we're not that cunning...

Econoline · Post by **Econoline** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 3:15 am

Do you really think, if a company deliberately created software that would enable the U.S. government to read all the encrypted personal data on all the iPhones in the world, that (1) it would not eventually be abused and misused by someone, somewhere in the U.S. government? and (b) it would not eventually make its way to hackers, criminals, and unfriendly governments?

By the way...I don't have an iPhone, so I don't know for sure, but I suspect there's a quicker and easier way to wipe the phone clean of data than by making 10 unsuccessful log-in attempts.

BoSoxGal · Post by **BoSoxGal** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 5:55 am

5 clicks on my iPhone to 'erase all data and restore factory settings'; probably a couple more clicks to assure the phone of user intent and *poof* - all gone!

I stand with Apple on the privacy protections, especially since the guy and his coconspirator are dead. It's not worth the potential mass privacy violations - and that's EXACTLY why they want the software most of all.

wesw · Post by **wesw** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:37 am

jim, MacAfee is running for pres too, so if it ends up as trump vs sanders....

Burning Petard · Post by **Burning Petard** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 2:35 pm

Please note. This phone was in the possession of the local sheriff department before the feds got their hands on it. Some hack (hack as a noun once used to mean a lazy worker who performed badly) in that office CHANGED the password on this phone before the FBI got it, and nobody knows what the new password is.

I know about prison sentences that include 'hard labor' but can a company be legally compelled by the feds to do a job which they have never done before?

Econoline · Post by **Econoline** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 3:41 pm

SG/BP - I hadn't heard that story (about the password having been changed by some local law enforcement person). Do you have a source for it?

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:37 pm

Econoline wrote:SG/BP - I hadn't heard that story (about the password having been changed by some local law enforcement person). Do you have a source for it?

Econ, here's the source, and it appears legit.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/san-bernardino ... d=37066070
Could the data they claim that can't be retrieved shed some more light on this attack other than what is already known? Maybe. But I'm guessing the Feds already know almost all there is to know. I feel this "national security/encryption" lawsuit is nothing more than a red herring designed to make the agencies appear to be doing something after not acting promptly on yet even more red flags that popped up prior to the attack.

I hope Apple wins the lawsuit but, if not, I bet it will fast track all the way to the Supreme court. In the meantime, without or without the Feds holding an encryption key, brace yourself for more of the same.

Daisy · Post by **Daisy** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:33 pm

Here's the reasons I DO NOT want Apple to give up their stance on this.

I and millions of others use my phone for things like Online Banking, shopping, and credit card management. I want these functions and access to my camera and microphone to be as secure as it is possible to be.

I do not want ANY government to have access to code that can break the security on these functions, but especially the USA, and especially in an election year where it is entirely possible that Donald Trump might get elected.

Big RR · Post by **Big RR** » Mon Feb 22, 2016 2:46 pm

Maybe they can take the phone to a CIA prison and waterboard it?

I'll stand with Apple on this as well--even if it plays into the hands of Trump among the "security uber alles" groups.

MajGenl.Meade · Post by **MajGenl.Meade** » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:45 pm

I must be dim - can't Apple take the thing and bust out all the information without giving the government the means to do so?

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