Encryption Truth: What the FBI Aren’t Telling You About Their Battle With Apple and San Bernardino

Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire

Earlier this week Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly rejected an unprecedented US Federal Court order that would force the company to decrypt an iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino shooters – a move that would have vast implications…

‘PRIVACY & PROTECTION’ – Apple CEO Tim Cook challenges FBI court order to unlock private data of users. (Photo iphoneitalia.com)

Breaching Privacy 

In a published open letter entitled, “A Message to Our Customers, ” Apple CEO Tim Cook strikingly opposed a recent federal court ruling  that would unlock a phone that’s been connected to the San Bernardino case at the behest of the FBI – for one time only.

In theory, the decryption of the phone would be opened via a newly created operating system that would give the FBI a backdoor into the device. But according to many skeptics, this type of backdoor feature could set a very dangerous precedent, while making it potentially much easier for hackers mining for data in the future.

In addition, the new iOS (not yet in existence) said to be used only in the case of the San Bernardino shooting, could pave the way for law enforcement agencies to gain broader access to consumer communications and according to the those in the tech industry, including Apple’s chief executive Cook, the privacy implications would be staggering:

“The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.”

In essence, the FBI’s court order demand would circumvent the sovereign rights of Americans, appearing to be in violation of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment.

Over the past 48 hours, there’s been a social media frenzy, as Facebook, Twitter and Google have all expressed their support for Apple’s court battle with federal authorities. This has also included the often entertaining if not perplexing, self proclaimed ‘cybersecurity legend’ John McAfee of McAfee Inc., who wrote an op-ed published with Business Insider, that dissects the potential fallout of the federal court ruling in similar fashion to that of Cook.

Here’s some of what the controversial cyber guru turned libertarian presidential hopeful had to say about the dire security circumstances facing Apple and the world at large:

“Using an obscure law, written in 1789 — the All Writs Act — the US government has ordered Apple to place a back door into its iOS software so the FBI can decrypt information on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.”

“It has finally come to this. After years of arguments by virtually every industry specialist that back doors will be a bigger boon to hackers and to our nation’s enemies than publishing our nuclear codes and giving the keys to all of our military weapons to the Russians and the Chinese, our government has chosen, once again, not to listen to the minds that have created the glue that holds this world together.”

Continuing, cyber expert McAfee, offered up a glimpse what could transpire in the event of a blackmail scenario if such a digital backdoor were to exist:

“In spite of the FBI’s claim that it would protect the back door, we all know that’s impossible. There are bad apples everywhere, and there only needs to be in the US government. Then a few million dollars, some beautiful women (or men), and a yacht trip to the Caribbean might be all it takes for our enemies to have full access to our secrets.”

‘ANTIVIRUS PIONEER’ – John McAfee, well-known American computer programmer. (Photo businessinsider) 

McAfee then summarized his op-ed with a ready-made-solution to the FBI’s demands by offering his services, “I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team, “ over a three-week period.

In an essence, a sensational gauntlet has been thrown down, calling for the court of public opinion to weigh in on this most important topic.

This has prompted a more cynical overview of the encryption case as a whole, as the entire event could be seen as a form of controlled opposition – especially when considering the pedigree of those supposedly opposed to the FBI’s demand, as both Cook and McAfee do have direct links to companies plagued with security baggage such as Lockheed Martin, IBM both of which have had their ethics put to question.

Would Apple and others stage opposition to this court order and use it to bolster their public image before eventually allowing the rights of private citizens to be abused?

While there is nothing conclusive here, the public should consider another angle to this story and eliminate inconvenient possibilities, even when someone appears to be working in the interest of the general population.

In a report featured here at 21WIRE from January of 2015, we learned of a growing privacy threat concerning the public through various facial and emotional recognition software:

“More Orwellian technology is being rolled out, not just to make you into more of a commodity than you already are, but also to ‘profile’ your emotions.

With no regulation on this issue, corporations are basically writing the privacy rules as they go along. Do you trust them? Where is this really heading?”

“In realty, they have no control over how third parties using their software might use images of people’s faces and digital signatures of your ’emotions’, storing, sharing and selling that data across macro platforms. Sure, it’s just another new wing of Big Data. Even social media data trawlers like Facebook has already begun moving into facial recognition of their users.”

So while it is compelling to see tech giants calling out the FBI’s overreach, it appears that many in the technology sector have already pledged support for the growing police state apparatus be virtue of creating this kind of privacy invading software.

But for the moment, it appears technology innovators Cook and McAfee, along with other social media companies, seem to be working on behalf of the public’s interest, whether for marketing concerns or true worry about the field of technology.

If nothing else, it has caused a debate over this pressing subject.

‘DIGITAL DANGER’ – The battle for consumer privacy hangs in the balance of the recent FBI court order. (Photo vibratingupdate)

Problem, Reaction, Solution

According to the Guardian:

“For months, the FBI searched for a compelling case that would force Apple to weaken iPhone security – and then the San Bernardino shooting happened.”

“This carefully planned legal battle has been months in the making, US officials and tech executives told the Guardian, as the government and Apple try to settle whether national security can dictate how Silicon Valley writes computer code.”

This past December, those of us at 21WIRE, pointed out a number of inconsistencies relating the heavily dramatized San Bernardino shooting attack. In fact, the media driven shooting attack said to have taken place had a growing list of details that didn’t add up.

After a week of whitewashed reports regarding the shooting, a media scripted ransacking of the alleged ‘shooters’ home (tampering with a potential crime scene) and eyewitness accounts that directly contradicted the official narrative from lawn enforcement, we learned that in the very room where 14 people were reportedly killed (along with 21 injured) at the Inland Regional Center, there was an “active-shooter” training drill/rehearsal, involving some of the victims almost a year before the attack took place.

And Incredibly, as was the situation in December, the critical component to this encryption case involving Apple and the FBI is hinged on a barrage of convoluted and conflicting reports of what really happened behind the scenes during the San Bernardino attack.

There were multiple eye-witness accounts that directly contradicted the terror-tale blamed solely on Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, none of which saw a female at the scene of the shooting. As 21WIRE previously stated:

“In fact, authorities did apprehend a third suspect but that aspect of the case, has seemingly gone down the memory hole, as has the very detailed eye-witness testimony from Sally Abdelmageed, (an Inland Regional Center employee) in a CBS interview with Scott Pelley, which clearly states that there were three white men in tactical gear dressed in black involved in the shooting event.”

“Abdelmageed’s account, echoed that of Juan Hernandez, who was interviewed shortly after the shooting incident by a local NBC affiliate, where it was described that “three white men in military fatigues,” had fled the scene in black Chevy Impala or SUV.”

“Despite all of this, CNN, ABC, FOX and all other media outlets on the scene – all pivoted, in unison, to validate authorities’ (the FBI) revised official ‘Jihadi Bonnie & Clyde’ story of “only 2 shooters – a husband and wife”.”

Additionally, a colleague at Inland Regional Center, Chris Nwadike, noted only two days after the apparent attack, that Farook was ‘himself’ and that “he was quiet,” and that he had not had a disagreement with anyone at the center. Furthermore, the FBI themselves revealed that both Malik and Farook had not been posting radical messages on social media which had previously been reported by authorities.

Even though the media revealed that there were no radical posts, the idea of social media postings, became central in suggesting that Malik had somehow influenced Farook in to particpating in the attack.

This is seemingly why the FBI also wanted to search his phone among other things.

Is it possible the security agency wants access to the encrypted phone so they can plant an additional back story to a shooting case that never made any sense?

Food for thought to chew on in the digital age…

With the privacy vs. protection battle waging on, Reuters news agency reports:

“The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on Friday seeking to compel Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to comply with a judge’s order to unlock the encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, portraying the tech giant’s refusal as a “marketing strategy.”

As the future of privacy hangs by a thread, more and more divide and rule politics are being used at the expense of the public.

More on to come on this story here at 21WIRE…

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21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.

 

Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/02/19/encryption-truth-what-the-fbi-arent-telling-you-about-their-battle-with-apple-and-san-bernardino/