Quoted from northvibe:This is just a public stunt to make us feel like our phone is currently secure. Does anyone honestly thing the gov doesn't already have the means to unlock/decrypt the phone? Hahah come on.
they don't. well, not at a fundamental level. modern cryptography algorithms are well-understood and well-documented. they are publicized, scrutinized, and reviewed. they are verifiably secure. the government is not magical. without a specific backdoor built into the specific system in question (or exploitable software bug, or an easily-guessable password), feds are powerless to retrieve data protected by modern encryption.
Hacking cryptography simply doesn't work like like it does in the movies and on TV! It is easy to say "ehh they have supercomputers..." but even supercomputers are subject to the laws of physics. see this page for a simple breakdown of what would be necessary for a supercomputer to brute force a file encrypted with AES256 (which is the encryption standard iPhones use). https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1x50xl/time_and_energy_required_to_bruteforce_a_aes256/
to summarize, if you had one billion ultra high-end processors (which is itself impossible, but whatever) running 24/7, it would take 6.7e40 times the lifespan of our universe to get halfway done cracking it. you would also, in the process, need to consume more energy than exists in the universe. i'm not sure the Government is that patient. The encryption itself is for all practical purposes secure. Only the key can unlock it, and the key can't be reverse-engineered (in this universe).
So the Feds can't get in unless the specific device or system in question has a serious software bug (which will likely be discovered and patched eventually) or a back door built into it (which makes it inherently vulnerable to more than just the Feds). The latter is what the Feds are asking for.
However, it is ludicrous to think we should make our encryption inherently insecure, for myriad reasons. If you build in a back door, it becomes exploitable by rogue nations and bad guys. i can guarantee it is not just the U.S. Government who would take advantage. Furthermore, are conservatives really so naive that they think our own government would only use this power for noble purposes? c'mon!
building a back door into encryption also makes the government's own encrypted stuff inherently less secure, so even from their own perspective, it's a dumb, short-sighted request.
Quoted from northvibe:They've had the means for years and bugged the software people use to write the apps... When the device touches the internet I laugh when people think it is actually secure.... Remember where many of the circuits/silicone are made....
circuits and silicon are not black boxes. we know precisely what they do and we watch their behavior VERY closely. if they were phoning home we would know about it instantaneously. security exploits are discovered, publicized, and patched every single day (and 99.99% of these security exploits are caused by unintentional programming bugs). you are being naive if you think security personnel at classified facilities (government AND corporate) are not keenly aware of what every incoming and outgoing packet is doing. Any competent network where secrecy is a priority is architected to give total visibility of what's going where at a finely granular level. If some widespread product or app was doing something shady it would be found out and publicized from countless varied sources. it's not like the U.S. Government is the only entity with secure networks.