If Apple makes a backdoor, iPhones WILL be hacked

[Quintessence]

While I think it's a good idea, I also question whether or not such a thing should be mandated. It seems an overreach to demand a private corporation develop the instruments of its own demise. And yet, considering how critical electronic information systems to many people's lifestyles, it also strikes me as profoundly irresponsible to avoid developing something like this at all.

Personally, I rather wish we'd go back to doing things the old-fashioned way. Sure, I appreciate that I have all the student data I need to do my job at my fingertips, but those databases can also be compromised by someone halfway around the world. If we still kept everything as paper files, someone would have to physically break in to our offices and either steal or time-consumingly copy files in order to have that data. As a society, we've basically decided to allow ease of access to information to override privacy and security concerns. Until the great collapse happens, there's no reversing that decision, it seems...

 

[Mister Emu]

If Apple isn’t already sitting on hardware or software that can do this (say as part of their development or testing tools), they certainly hold the information and tools to most easily develop it. A leak of that would already pose almost as significant a security risk.

That is an assumption, that they made a security crippled OS variant just so they could allow brute-force attacks. One I'm not sure is reasonable, given that if they wanted to make an OS they could potentially invade, they would have kept the backdoor that let them bypass the encryption. Their next OS won't have the vulnerability the FBI wants them to use. Apple doesn't want to be made to attack its users privacy.

Just trust me. I used to be a hacker.

I can believe it as you advocate against known effective security measures. All I will say is I used to be involved in circles as well.

It's just a fact that our government isn't exactly tech savy.

You are living in a distant past if you think that where it matters our government lacks in technical capacity.

Anyone who says the phone will never be hacked is simply living in a fantasy

2 years in the average case isn't never, sorry. If Apple, or someone else, doesn't provide for unlimited attempts to crack this phone, it will never be broken in our lifetime.

 

[HonestJoe]

That is an assumption, that they made a security crippled OS variant just so they could allow brute-force attacks.

That's not what I'm saying. However secure they made their system, the programmers who developed it are likely to be able to circumvent it one way or another. There is a good chance that tools they'll have used for developing and testing will help with that process.

I'm confident of this because I've done exactly that in the past (albeit involving much less secured systems).