New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Apple Working on Security Measures to Make iOS Devices 'It Can't Hack'

Wednesday February 24, 2016 3:06 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple-FBIAmid a monumental dispute with the United States government over an order to hack into the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, The New York Times says Apple has already begun work on implementing stronger security measures "even it can't hack" to protect iOS devices.

The FBI has asked Apple to help it brute force the passcode on Farook's iPhone by creating a version of iOS that would both disable passcode security features and allow passcodes to be entered electronically. The new security measures Apple is working on would prevent the government from using similar passcode bypassing techniques to access iOS devices in the future.

Apple has announced its intentions to challenge the order that would force it to help the FBI, calling the software the FBI wants "too dangerous to create." The company has also said that such software could be used to "unlock any iPhone" available today, including its most recent devices. If Apple loses the fight against the FBI and is forced to create the software in question, stronger security would ensure it could not go on to be used again.

Apple and other technology companies believe that the order to hack into the iPhone sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to a weakening of overall device encryption, something the government has denied while also pursing other court orders that would require Apple to help law enforcement extract data from 12 other encrypted iPhones.

Earlier this week, Apple called on the U.S. government to drop the case and form a commission or panel of experts on intelligence, technology, and civil liberties to discuss the implications of what the FBI is asking on national security, privacy, and personal freedoms.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Apple-FBI
[ 116 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
Vanilla35
30 months ago
Wow, apple is hardcore. I like it.

F you government, we the people.
Rating: 36 Votes
Avatar
JimmyHook
30 months ago
Here's the plain truth. Apple asked the FBI to get the court order in private, and Apple would have battled in private. The FBI has an agenda, so they went to the press thinking they could use terrorism to force Apple's hand. They fired the first shot. They didn't expect Tim Cook to go nuclear with that first letter and subsequent statements. Too bad FBI, you failed. Now you'll see an iPhone that cannot be broken into no matter how many court orders you get. Wanna cry about it? I'd rather die in a terror attack than live in a society where the government can dictate how I communicate.
Rating: 15 Votes
Avatar
LizKat
30 months ago

Mainwhile, i will just get some popcorn and watching the drama unfold.


Meanwhile I'll just stroll out to the mailbox and see if I have received yet another credit card replacement after some corporate dunce of a CEO has rolled the dice on security as a cuttable cost, and lost yet again while not bothering to secure customer data, hence breach, hence new card. You wonder how many of us actually still have an identity that is not out there fully assembled and waiting to be assumed by someone else for the best price.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
FloatingBones
30 months ago
One other thing I see not discussed: the terrorists will soon adapt and will wipe and/or physically destroy their smartphones, and this issue will be largely moot.
I urge anyone who hasn't done so to sign the petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/apple-privacy-petition . At the very least, this will force the Obama administration itself to publicly make the case for these FBI actions.
Rating: 10 Votes
Avatar
CFreymarc
30 months ago
DefCon will be extra special this year!
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
mrgraff
30 months ago
Could God create a rock so heavy He could not lift it?
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Wondercow
30 months ago

Actually Apple is proving how clever they are. Maximizing the free publicity, they understand how gullible some people can be. Believing every word Apple speaks, the devotees are lapping this up. Make no mistake, the Apple Marketing Machine is very effective.

And yet Apple wanted to keep this quiet and we first heard about it from the FBI. Why did the FBI make it public? My gut, and anecdotal evidence, tells me they did it to garner public support, you know, by getting free publicity for the issue--otherwise known as a marketing tactic.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
LovingTeddy
30 months ago
There is no unhackable software. If it is programmed by human, it bond to have holes that is hackable.


Think other way, if indeed Apple created unhackable software, jailbreak will be impossible and it won't be fun.

Mainwhile, i will just get some popcorn and watching the drama unfold.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Virinprew
30 months ago

Meanwhile I'll just stroll out to the mailbox and see if I have received yet another credit card replacement after some corporate dunce of a CEO has rolled the dice on security as a cuttable cost, and lost yet again while not bothering to secure customer data, hence breach, hence new card. You wonder how many of us actually still have an identity that is not out there fully assembled and waiting to be assumed by someone else for the best price.

That's the longest 'meanwhile' I've ever read.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
JohnGrey
30 months ago

The current ones are already "unhackable" technically because of the burned in encryption key on the SoC which Apple doesn't have.

What other measures are they thinking about? Security against brute force attacks?


No, if they're legitimately willing to take the step, they can go much further. They can make the all cryptographic information be stored in a Trusted Computing Module that is destructible upon being physically accessed (a common hardware arrangement for secure USB drives like IronKey), require that a PIN be used before boot, require that no firmware update can be executed without the device PIN and that device PINs cannot be delivered remotely.
Rating: 4 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]