That the FBI managed to hack the iPhone ends, for now, the story that has been making headlines for weeks. So what now
Surely you have heard: the FBI wanted to access the data stored on an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, responsible for the murder of 14 people at the end of 2015, so he asked a judge to force Apple to create a method to access the mobile without losing the data.
In other words, the FBI wanted a back door, even if they didn’t call it that, a method that would allow them to bypass the built-in security in iOS to access the data. And this could have catastrophic consequences for our security, even if we don’t use an iPhone.
A soap opera of those who make history
Finally, the FBI has not gotten the back door it wanted because has already managed to hack the iPhone and get the information you were looking for. Happy ending?
Just a moment that the FBI has hacked the iPhone? So why the fuck? Should we rejoice or worry? Where is Apple in all this? And is it that no one thinks of children in our safety?
Let’s go by parts. Yes, the FBI has hacked the iPhone; in fact, if we believe Edward Snowden’s words, FBI could hack iPhone from scratch, and I tend to believe him in these things, since he knows very well how to work in American security. Besides that I find it hard to accept that one of the most powerful agencies on the planet is not capable of unlocking a phone.
The truth behind the entire legal process to unlock an iPhone
From the beginning this case was not about the possibility of unlocking the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, but about creating a back door that would unlock any iPhone. And above all, he was trying to create a precedent, even if FBI officials denied it.
If the case had gone ahead, and eventually Apple had been forced to collaborate with the FBI, the agency would win a very powerful tool; and thanks again to Snowden we know that the US security forces they have no qualms about violating the privacy of the first one that passes.
But more importantly, the legal precedent would be there. Since then, the FBI could have gone to Google, Microsoft, or any company and demanded exactly the same, a back door, with the certainty that you could present this case as a precedent. It is not by chance that these companies declared their support for Apple in the case, because they knew that after the apple they went.
Why hacking the iPhoneno is nothing serious
tips-security-internet
That was the true objective of this case. But now the FBI has announced that it can get into the iPhone in question, and that probably means that the FBI can now get into as many iPhones as they want using the same method, probably a security bug they have discovered. Have we not finished the same as before?
No, for a simple reason: security bugs can be closed, rear doors cannot. Apple now knows that there is a bug in your system, and you can spend resources and time finding and fixing it; If you had created a back door mandated by the judge, you could do nothing against it.
Security bugs can be closed, rear doors cannot
Apple is the worst out of the mess; on the one hand he has achieved what he wants, but on the other hand Tim Cook’s security-based speech has been hit hard when it is made public that the iPhone has such a big hole.
The worst thing is that they still do not know what the bug consists of, since the government has not declared whether it will go public and Apple is unlikely to convince them. In 2014, the US government committed to publicize the vulnerabilities it found, but with many conditions.
For example, if they believe that vulnerability may be useful to them in fighting terrorism, and this appears to be the case, they will not make it public. So Apple will have to work hard to find it and cover it up.
Perhaps ironically, that the FBI hacked the iPhone is a victory for which we believe that governments should not have full access to our data. In addition, with a little luck the terrorist data could be used to avoid future attacks, so we are facing a full-blown win-win.
