[no2pencil]

Why is this still a discussion? Apple moved on (twice) without Jobs... the man is dead.

[Atli]

Any excuse to diss Apple.

[NeoTifa]

I think it is cool, however, that they're not working with the FBI to crack those bombers' phones. I dunno how much they can do if the encryption was done right, but if there were an "easy" way in and they hand it over, it would be abused for small shit, and our privacy will be nonexistant.

[depricated]

Which is a bit like Voldemort defending the rights of Pure Bloods.

It doesn't make Apple any less evil, but at least they're not helping to oppress the class that supports them, I suppose.

And yeah, Apple doesn't deserve to not be derided. So I'll take the opportunity to share with the world what douchebags they are.

[ArtificialSoldier]

Apple could most definitely help to only crack that one phone. What the FBI wants is a version of iOS 8 (I think) which does not have the limits on PIN protection so that they could then just brute force the PIN. It would be trivial enough for Apple to specify in their OS build that only a device with that specific device ID would have the PIN protection limits disabled, and then they sign that image for it to be loaded on that one phone. But it leads to the slippery slope argument. Yes there is a federal court order in this case to look for evidence of terrorist activity, but that's not where it would end. Next time they'll want Apple to help with a drug dealer, or a murder suspect, or a drunk driver, or a protester, or someone they think might have looked at them funny. Not to say anything about other countries with more "relaxed" judicial systems, like Saudi Arabia coming to Apple looking for help to decrypt the phone of a suspected homosexual. It's just not something that they want to be in the business of doing (there's no money in that, after all). Newer model iPhones wouldn't be subject to the same issues either, since device encryption and security on newer models is handled by a chip and not the OS. You can't just load a different version of the OS to bypass the protection schemes, but it's possible on something like the iPhone 5c that the FBI currently has.

[jon.kiparsky]

ArtificialSoldier, on 18 February 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

It's just not something that they want to be in the business of doing (there's no money in that, after all).

I wouldn't be so sure about that part. Government contracts can be pretty lucrative.