We are, yet again, at another pivotal piece of Internet legislature. Recently, a federal judge in Riverside, California ordered Apple to assist the government in unlocking and decrypting the iPhone 5C, used by Syed Rizwan Farook, responsible for the San Bernardino shootings in December.
These shootings were one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in 2015. My thoughts go out to all of those affected. These attacks are despicable and those responsible for the attacks must be help accountable for their actions. Apple has already complied with all valid subpoenas and search warrants, even going as far to make Apple engineers available for advising the FBI.
The FBI fucked up. They compromised their entry to the sized iPhone 5C by changing the Apple ID and password associated with the phone by someone in the county health department, per the FBI's request.
Given that the iCloud auto-backup solution failed and all other feasible recovery solutions are now inviable, the FBI and the Department of Justice asked a judge to order Apple to re-write the firmware just for their unlocking purposes. This proposed new firmware would allow the FBI to remove the automatic wipe feature, allowing them to brute force the password.
I've been reading a lot of misinformed comments on the Internet and thought I'd give my computer science perspective of the situation:
1. Many Internet souls are arguing that Apple is operating based purely off its business model, and that they are using it's security features to maintain its company and brand marketability.
Let me make it very clear that Apple is NOT operating under its best marketing and business interests (surprisingly). This is about Apple's customers and their basic freedoms. Creating a backdoor is not only unlawful, but it puts the vast majority of law abiding citizens and their personal information at risk.
2. Many uninformed Internet warriors are wondering why Apple just doesn't comply with the FBI, given that it's only one user's iPhone and that that user is one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The issue isn't as black and white as it seems. The situation is not a hardware hack, rather it is a software hack. It is easy to think that the backdoor would only be applied to the single iPhone. However, this backdoor vulnerability could be applied to every iOS device in existence. That's over 1 billion devices.
I hope Apple takes this case all the way up to the Supreme Court. This backdoor, if created, could be abused by Apple's internal employees, hackers, even foreign governments if it ended up in the wrong hands. History has shown us that as soon as something is leaked, it becomes available on The Pirate Bay an hour later.
We cannot sacrifice our basic freedoms in the name of terrorism. As soon as we encourage this type of misbehavior, it gives our government unlimited access to all of our private devices. This is how oppressive regimes operate. Let democracy stand.