The battle that pits Apple to federal police and US intelligence agencies met in recent hours a development that could prove decisive for the future of the debate on security and privacy. Two and a half months after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, a court ordered the company to create a program so that the FBI can unlock the iPhone used by one of the attackers. Claiming that the implications of this order are “chilling”, the boss of Apple, Tim Cook, has vowed to fight against the authorities until the end.
At stake is access to data stored on mobile Rizwan Syed Farook, the American who killed 14 people in San Bernardino county, in December last year in an attack committed with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani who spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia. The attackers had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (EI), but there is no indication that the operation has been mounted with foreign aid – like other attacks, mainly in Europe, have been planned and organized by the performers themselves, under the influence of extremist ideology of EI.
Both were killed by the police on the day of the attack, and authorities found several electronic devices near the crime scene in the couple’s home and in the car the two used to move over the attack – pens digital, hard drives which were eventually recovered and destroyed at least two mobile phones were lying to a dustbin. But the police also found an intact cell phone in the car of the attackers. – An iPhone 5C model, Apple, no one at the FBI was able to open so far
An armored mobile
> those responsible for investigating say they need to read the messages and view photos that are stored on that phone but do not fail because its user set a lock code, which may consist of four or six numbers, or a much higher amount of a combination of numbers and letters.
the authorities already know what type it is this code (because the spaces to fill it appear on the screen), but have no way to find out what numbers and / or letters are correct, and do not want to risk. – due to an option that may have been activated by the user, everything is recorded in the phone will be erased if someone miss ten attempts
This is where Apple as mobile phone manufacturer in question. According to the federal police and the judge Sheri Pym, the District Court for the Central District of California, the company has to further assist the authorities in this case – fulfilling their legal obligations and court orders, Apple has surrendered to police everything the attacker had stored in iCloud, a service where you can record photos, contacts and other documents out of the phone, in the “cloud”.
the recorded documents in iCloud service can be easily obtained by Apple but the information stored in your phone’s another story, especially in newer models (those with recognition button by fingerprint). In these cases, the operation that allows access to the system is too complicated – depends on the combination of the lock code and a key that is embedded inside the device itself, a kind of small computer to him which makes the phone function, and that Apple ensures not have access.
this is not the iPhone that the FBI want to unlock, because the model in question has no such embedded system on the appliance. But for the problem authorities it is the same – although the operation to access the mobile phone in question be made through links in the operating system ( software ), and not on the device ( hardware ), only Apple can open the door to the FBI because any new software installed must be recognized by the company’s servers.
in practice, the California court It requires is that Apple create a version of its operating system that can be injected into the mobile Rizwan Syed Farook and enables to do three things: disable the function that allows you to delete all the content after ten attempts; connect this phone to a computer fast to send thousands and thousands of possible combinations to get it right; and these combinations can be sent without any interval therebetween, as in the normal version of the operating system – between the 1st and the 2nd trial there is a second interval, but this increases waits until the 9 ª for the 10th is longer need to wait an hour.
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