This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.The Need for EncryptionSmartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.
The San Bernardino CaseWe were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the governments efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.When the FBI has requested data thats in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and weve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.
A Dangerous PrecedentRather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by "brute force," trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.The implications of the government's demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone's microphone or camera without your knowledge.Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
In 1999, a group of researchers from George Washington University attempted to survey the worldwide market for encryption products [HB+99]. The impetus for their survey was the ongoing debate about US encryption export controls. By collecting information about 805 hardware and software encryption products from 35 countries outside the US, the researchers showed that restricting the export of encryption products did nothing to reduce their availability around the world, while at the same time putting US companies at a competitive disadvantage in the information security market.Seventeen years later, we have tried to replicate this survey.
Anyone who wants to evade an encryption backdoor in US or UK encryp-tion products has a wide variety of foreign products they can use instead: to encrypt their hard drives, voice conversations, chat sessions, VPN links, and everything else. Any mandatory backdoor will be ineffective simply because the marketplace is so inter- national. Yes, it will catch criminals who are too stupid to realize that their security products have been backdoored or too lazy to switch to an alternative, but those criminals are likely to make all sorts of other mistakes in their security and be catchable anyway. The smart criminals that any mandatory backdoors are supposed to catch-terrorists, organized crime, and so on-will easily be able to evade those backdoors. Even if a criminal has to use, for example, a US encryption product for communicating with the world at large, it is easy for him to also use a non-US non-backdoored encryption product for communicating with his compatriots.The US produces the most products that use encryption, and also the most widely used products. Any US law mandating back- doors will primarily affect people who are unconcerned about government surveillance, or at least unconcerned enough to make the switch. These people will be left vulnerable to abuse of those backdoors by cybercriminals and other governments.
ConclusionsLaws regulating product features are national, and only affect people living in the countries in which they're enacted. It is easy to purchase products, especially software products, that are sold anywhere in the world from everywhere in the world. Encryption products come from all over the world. Any national law mandating encryption backdoors will overwhelmingly affect the innocent users of those products. Smart criminals and terrorists will easily be able to switch to more-secure alternatives.
jeanhoek om 15:56, 17-02-2016Volgens mij zit je in een bananenrepubliek wanneer je zo'n uitspraak simpelweg naast je neer kunt leggen.
jtk om 19:03, 17-02-2016]Een iPhone zonder goede beveiliging (dat wil zeggen zonder encryptie) is een onding.
En waar de FBI nu precies wel of niet in is geïnteresserd weet ik niet en boeit mij ook niet zo.
MacFrankie om 19:25, 17-02-2016Daarnaast vinden slimme terroristen altijd wel een methode om ongestoord te kunnen communiceren.
jeanhoek om 22:08, 17-02-2016Het gaat hier toch over de iPhones van de San Bernadino terroristen? Dus een discussie over of je nu wel of niet een backdoor moet inbouwen en hoe die er dan uit moet zien is voor een ander draadje.
neoman om 08:56, 18-02-2016Terroristen zullen er altijd zijn. Privacy is er maar één keer.Dus de vraag is in wat voor wereld wil je leven: Met terroristen en privacy Met terroristen en zonder privacy