Silicon Valley and Washington Poised Return to Cold War?
Silicon Valley and Washington Poised Return to Cold War?
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SAN FRANCISCO - The US government dropped its court fight against Apple after it successfully pulled data from the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook.
According to court records reported by The Guardian, the development on Monday effectively ended a six-week legal battle poised to shape digital privacy for years to come. Instead, Silicon Valley and Washington are poised to return to a simmering cold war over the balance between privacy and law enforcement in the age of apps.
Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday evening that they no longer needed Apple’s help in getting around the security countermeasures on Farook’s device.
“The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc,” the government said. It then asked the court to vacate a 16 February court order demanding Apple create software that weakened iPhone security settings to aid government investigators.
On a conference call with reporters that the Department of Justice organized, a law enforcement official declined to offer details on the technique other than to say that it came from outside the government. The Guardian has reported that the technique used by the government has been classified.
The official also declined to say if the government would share the technique – which likely exploits a security glitch in the phone – with Apple. Doing so would presumably cause the company to patch the security flaw. This leaves the Justice Department with a difficult choice: make all iPhones more secure from other hackers and governments who know how to get inside, or preserve an investigative technique.
The government on Monday would only confirm the technique works on the iPhone model Farook used – the iPhone 5c – but it’s possible it could work on other models that run the same software.
Apple fought the February court order with a massive public relations and legal campaign. The company, America’s most valuable, argued that creating such software would force the company to betray its values along with the security and privacy of all of its customers.
According to court records reported by The Guardian, the development on Monday effectively ended a six-week legal battle poised to shape digital privacy for years to come. Instead, Silicon Valley and Washington are poised to return to a simmering cold war over the balance between privacy and law enforcement in the age of apps.
Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday evening that they no longer needed Apple’s help in getting around the security countermeasures on Farook’s device.
“The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc,” the government said. It then asked the court to vacate a 16 February court order demanding Apple create software that weakened iPhone security settings to aid government investigators.
On a conference call with reporters that the Department of Justice organized, a law enforcement official declined to offer details on the technique other than to say that it came from outside the government. The Guardian has reported that the technique used by the government has been classified.
The official also declined to say if the government would share the technique – which likely exploits a security glitch in the phone – with Apple. Doing so would presumably cause the company to patch the security flaw. This leaves the Justice Department with a difficult choice: make all iPhones more secure from other hackers and governments who know how to get inside, or preserve an investigative technique.
The government on Monday would only confirm the technique works on the iPhone model Farook used – the iPhone 5c – but it’s possible it could work on other models that run the same software.
Apple fought the February court order with a massive public relations and legal campaign. The company, America’s most valuable, argued that creating such software would force the company to betray its values along with the security and privacy of all of its customers.
(rnz)
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