An article by: David Tan, Chief Technology Officer, CHIPS Technology Group
In case you
missed it, there is a debate raging between privacy advocates, law enforcement
personnel and citizens everywhere over the encrypted content of an iPhone used
by one of the shooters in last year’s mass killing / terrorist attack in
California. The FBI has the phone, but
can’t unlock it, and since it has the latest version of the Apple iOS on it,
the content is all very securely encrypted.
There is a standing court order in place attempting to force Apple to
unlock the phone. A court order that
Apple is refusing. This has all resulted
in a very public, very political battle between all parties.
On the surface,
this seems like a no-brainer. Unlock the
phone, gather the evidence and thwart off any possible future attacks. Who could argue against this? I’m certainly not. It would seem like anyone opposing this is
some sort of an anarchist or has something to hide of their own. Heck if the FBI asked I’d gladly hand them my
unlocked iPhone, laptop, computer, whatever, if they feel it would help in any
sort of criminal investigation.
There is
much more to the story than appears however.
You see Apple can’t just magically unlock the phone. They would need to build in a backdoor – a
master key for all their phones to be unlocked.
Sure, they could build it, install onto just this phone, then “throw it
away” but what happens next week or next month when they get the next court
order? Do they start from scratch? No, once they build it, this backdoor is here
to stay. So again, why is that a problem?
Many privacy
advocates fear the thought of government and law enforcement having this level
of access to any of our information.
While I see that argument, it’s not what I’m here to talk about. Again, I’m not concerned about the FBI
looking through my mail. If they want to
know that I have Tom Brady starting for my fantasy football team this weekend
or that I just spent $750 on orchestra tickets to Hamilton on Broadway, be my
guest! It was well worth it by the
way. What I’m worried about is who else
gets access to this golden ticket.
This isn’t
the first time something like this has been debated. In 1993, the NSA created an encryption device
with a built-in backdoor that was intended to be adopted by all
telecommunications companies called the Clipper Chip. In 1994, a hacker published a paper detailing
the flaws and vulnerabilities of that chip.
Fortunately, privacy advocates and legal roadblocks kept it from
becoming mainstream, or all of this sensitive, encrypted communication would
have become completely open to the public.
That was 20
years ago, right? That could never
happen now. Wrong, think again. The minute this backdoor gets created, it
exists forever, and it becomes the single biggest hacking target in the history
of the internet. The government can keep
it safe though, I mean they’re the government and have unlimited
resources. Just like they kept the IRS
from being hacked and the Office of Personnel Management which contains data
about background checks on every government employee and contractor. They probably wanted to keep those safe too. Not to mention the fact that as soon as they
do this, Apple might as well change their logo from an apple to a great big
target.
Face it, the
potential for this to fall into the wrong hands is just too great of a risk to
take. This type of backdoor exposes all
our personal, financial, business and otherwise private data to the prying eyes
of whoever is capable of installing a Tor browser and navigating the dark web –
trust me it’s not that hard. What’s
worse is that it doesn’t even really protect us from the criminals! There are dozens of apps in the Apple app
store that offer end-to-end encrypted communications that wouldn’t be
compromised even if the government got into these phones. Is the government going to go after each one
of them as well? They can try but most
of them are based outside the U.S. and the reach of court orders.
Apple is in
a no-win situation here. I completely
understand the outcry from politicians and citizens over them appearing to not
do the right thing. The truth is they
aren’t only doing the right thing; they are doing the only thing. Apple is putting themselves on the line to
protect us all. While I’ll admit I
haven’t always been their biggest fan, and still find many of their business
practices deplorable, they need to be commended for the stand they are taking
on all our parts.
