Today, March 22, Apple and FBI were to clash in court. The federal judge Sheri Pym would have been entitled to decide whether to file the requests of the Bureau or do they confirm the mandate with which he forced Cupertino to help investigators in unlocking the iPhone terrorist Syed Farook, author of the massacre of San Bernardino.
The hearing, however, will not take place. With a twist the FBI has asked to postpone two weeks . Someone, a third party whose identity has not been revealed, on Sunday March 20 would show the feds how to unlock your phone without Apple’s help. A method that would eliminate the need for an intervention on the part of Cupertino engineers and that it does not provide for the creation of a special version “weak” of IOS, such as that the order of the court would have imposed Apple to develop.
SNOWDEN DIXIT
In the coming days the FBI will test the technical feasibility of the new method and will be able to decide whether to use it to the iPhone 5C release. By 5 April the Court will be informed of the likely outcome.
The retreat of the federal to the first major hearing Eve ends up giving reason to As the experts cybersecurity supported for some time. As iPhone is a relatively safe telephone, in the field everyone they know that there are methods to access the contents of the locked device without disturbing the Cupertino software division.
Edward Snowden, on Twitter, had become spokesman for the widespread acceptance of the expert community. Daniel Kahn Gilmor , the American Civil Liberties Union, had even gone beyond, detailing a theoretical method of release that would work on the iPhone in San Bernardino. Just as he had done on his blog also Jonathan Zdziarsky, a leading expert in the world of forensic analysis of the iPhone.
WHAT METHOD?
There remains the question of what the FBI learned method by mysterious technical consultant with only two days in advance of the date of the first important hearing.
It may be one of the techniques based on the hardware change, illustrated recently by Zdziarsky and also proposed by the Parliamentary Republican Darrell Issa to FBI Director , James Comey, during the hearing in front of the Justice Commission of the first March.
Or it may be that the FBI has bought an “exploit”, a forcing technique based on a bug in the code or the iOS encryption. In this case there would be outstanding after breaking and an attached method to exploit of which the Cupertino engineers have no knowledge. A hole in the encryption that could put at risk the entire platform that Apple is unable to plug.
Fortunately, the most disturbing scenario is also the least likely. Easier by the FBI learned that the method is based on some “hack” complex and well-kept secret. Such as the one marketed by the Israeli Cellebrite, valid until iOS 8.4, used by the Court of Milan for iPhone to access Alexander Boettcher , accused in the case of acid attacks .
Do not discard, finally, the possibility of inter-cooperation with the CIA and NSA. The two agencies have access to the computing power and software tools needed to try to force directly to the encryption that keeps us safe the files on the iPhone 5C of San Bernardino, with no need to guess the numerical key to unlock.
the fool FBI
Whatever the new method discovered by the FBI with enviable timing to 48 hours from the hearing, the fool remains. This about-face last minute, which agrees with what was said in the security sector from the start, it shows all the weaknesses of the federal strategy.
It was clear to all, and also the Director Comey had admitted before Congress, that a favorable judgment FBI would have created a legal precedent useful, perfect to be used in hundreds of similar cases. A judgment contrary, however, would have the opposite effect and made it much more difficult to use the All Writs Act – a 200 year old law on which was based the request of federal – to force technology companies to provide its assistance in similar cases to this, in the future.
And ‘possible, therefore, that FBI lawyers have wanted to take time not so much because a new method has changed the cards on the table, but because Apple has in hand a very strong defense. As today’s hearing outcome would remain uncertain until the last, it is the common opinion of jurists and commentators that Cupertino has in his hands and powerful objections earlier, which would likely prevail on the charges on purely legal grounds.
The risk now is that the adjournment would undermine that sense of urgency that has contributed, in this last month, triggering important public discussions on cryptography, on the right to privacy and the defense civil liberties against the excessive power of the US government. unresolved issues that would require a reasoned intervention by the legislature to defend the freedom of all and not forcing specific and targeted to the executive operates.
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