Apple
Apple is locked in a new battle with the US federal government, which is seeking access to encrypted iPhones, and the current round revolves around the government's request to decrypt the phone of one of the shooters in the Florida incident, but the result may determine how far the government can reach your phone and how easy it is that.
Prosecutor William Barr asked Apple at a press conference granting law enforcement agencies access to two phones related to the December 2019 shooting incident in Pensacola, Florida to see if the shooter had contacted with terrorist groups, or had collaborators.
Given that iPhones have a security feature that wipes phone data in the event that too many incorrect six-digit pass codes are entered, law enforcement cannot guess the correct number.
The public request from the public prosecutor and complaints about Apple's lack of cooperation so far represent an additional pressure on the company to submit, as Barr said at the conference: We asked Apple to help open the shooter's phones, but it has yet to provide any substantial assistance.
"This situation explains why it is important to enable the public to access digital evidence once a court order has been obtained based on a possible reason," he added. While Apple rejected - in a statement to the site "Recode" - statements that it did not provide substantial assistance in the investigation of Pensacola.
The American company has indicated that it is working continuously to assist the FBI in investigating the shooting incident, and that it has responded to all requests
Incoming to it immediately, often within hours, and exchanged information with the FBI.
In Jacksonville, Pensacola and New York
Apple indicated that it had delivered a quantity of information to investigators, and that it had responded in each case with all the information it had, but made it clear that it was not planning to give the United States government a way to decrypt iPhone devices.
This new refusal comes to remind her of her position four years ago when she refused to grant the FBI access to a closed iPhone owned by the shooter in San Bernardino, where in 2016 the FBI obtained a court order requiring Apple to create a back door in all of its encrypted devices So law enforcement agencies can access them.
Apple dismissed the court order saying that "protecting the privacy and safety of its customers, including customers in countries such as Russia and China, was more important than the government's request," and the American Civil Liberties Union seems to agree to that, as Jennifer Granic, censorship and cyber security advisor said "The government's request will weaken the security of millions of iPhones, which is dangerous and unconstitutional."
"The strong coding of religious minorities facing genocide, such as the Uighurs in China, allows them to communicate peacefully with each other and the outside world," she added.
The Prosecutor has now reopened this debate, and if the matter comes to court this time, the decision may have ramifications that go beyond the shooter's phone, and this is what Apple always refers to, as if the government can force it to decrypt one phone or include a back door in Its products, there is nothing to prevent the government from accessing every device.
Source: Reuters
