“FBI Director James Comey for the first time admitted that ‘there was a mistake made’ when the agency directed that the Apple ID password associated with the shooter’s phone be changed,” Dawn Chmielewski reports for Re/code.
“Comey made the admission today, in response to a question raised during a House Judiciary Committee hearing into the question of encryption. One committee member asked whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation had foreclosed the possibility of obtaining a current backup of a phone used by one of the shooters, Syed Farook, when it directed his employer to change the password on the account,” Chmielewski reports. “‘There was a mistake made in the first 24 hours, where the county, at the FBI’s request, made it hard to make the phone back up by [changing the password of] the iCloud account,’ Comey said in testimony.”
Chmielewski reports, “The FBI had previously stated that changing the password wasn’t a screw-up.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: More lies from whence a seemingly eternal supply springs.
The only “mistake” that was made was the FBI thinking they could change that Apple ID in order to set up this case in a play on emotion in order to aid the terrorists’ goals of stripping Americans of their rights and freedom. No, we’re not buying Comey’s feign of ignorance.
The family members of the San Bernadino terrorism victims should be incensed that the U.S. federal government — whose story seeming changes day by day, by the way — is using those tragic deaths in a despicable ploy to sway a confused portion of the public to support the trampling of their rights.
Those who wrongheadedly agree with these disingenuous government hacks need to realize that they are working to deliver exactly what the terrorists wanted to achieve with their murderous rampage. Aiding the murderous jihadists isn’t a proper way to memorialize the victims.
Don’t be blind. Don’t be stupid. Don’t be weak.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! – Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
SEE ALSO:
U.S. Congress likely to side with Apple vs. FBI in iPhone unlocking fight – March 1, 2016
Why did the FBI direct the San Bernardino Health Department to reset Syed Farook’s Apple ID? – February 22, 2016
I’m with Tim.
Are US corporations now required to step in when the FBI F*CKS UP? Geez, Louise, what parallel universe is this that we are living in?
Replace the head of the FBI.
i find this current era remarkably inept and contradictory in so many ways. At this moment in time, what’s worse? Corporations ruining my government with money, lobbying and literally writing the laws for Congress? Or my government interfering with the legitimate business of corporations, demanding that they screw over their customers with unconstitutional acts, backdoors, surveillance enablement (CISA law) ad nauseam.
I seriously don’t know. It’s all about adversaries and who’s stuffing what into who’s back pocket. Corrupt and crazy. No wonder people get fed up. The tough part is knowing what to do about it besides bitch and champion loud mouth know-nothings who won’t solve a damned thing. Yes, I’m talking about BOTH parties sucking.
I’ve said it before:
it’s weird that all those people attacking Apple including a bunch a Apple hating trolls posting here haven’t taken the FBI to task over their ‘mistake’ confining all their anger only at Apple.
Note according to them this is the most important case in the USA, without the phones contents ‘Terrorism will Run Rampant in the USA’ etc.
yet the FBI screwed up the ability to read the backups. (so by their stupidity they put us all at risk of “Terrorism that will Run Rampant in the USA )
Think about it, if this ‘most important case in the USA’ if the FBI had screwed up OTHER forensic evidence like ‘Lost the Guns Used’ or something … Yet now the Apple haters (including PROMINENT POLITICIANS whom I shall not mention as I don’t want to slide into a political flame war… ) seem to voice nothing against the FBI but reserve all anger for Apple
ALSO IF THE FBI CAN’T EVEN UNDERSTAND SIMPLE PASSCODE ISSUES DO WE TRUST IT TO DEAL WITH A HACK OS (leading to Backdoor) WHICH WOULD JEOPARDIZE TECH AND THUS ECONOMY & SOCIETY ALL OVER. (experts have been pointed out the Hack OS can never be contained )
imagine if the this FBI director who can’t deal with the simple passcode issue having in the future deal with the possible millions of iPhone compromised by hackers attacking family info, bank accounts , passkeys etc (+PCs, servers, etc if backdoors are approved). It’s like a guy who burns his fingers with firecrackers dealing with falling Atomic Bombs.
i didn’t even mention that this guy released to the PRESS that he had filed against Apple BEFORE he even informed Apple.
Apple says he gave them no chance of keeping things under wraps or hiding a hacker OS.
I’ve been looking for that article where Tim Cook mentioned that but can’t relocate it. Have you got it handy? So many articles to read.
Great posts by the way.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/exclusive-apple-ceo-tim-cook-sits-david-muir-37174976
An incredulous John Gruber posted at the outset of this sorry affair “The only possible explanations for this are incompetence or dishonesty on the part of the FBI. Incompetence, if they didn’t realize that resetting the Apple ID password could prevent the iPhone from backing up to iCloud. Dishonesty, if they directed the county to do this knowing the repercussions, with the goal of setting up this fight to force Apple to create a back door for them in iOS.”
The FBI, realising Congress seems to smell a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” has adopted Gruber’s “Incompetence” explanation. There is no Door Number Three.
Pathetic.
It certainly looks like this “case” was CREATED by the FBI to further their quest for unlimited surveillance of citizens. Comey has been very outspoken on the issue in the last several months leading up to this. Does/did he take an oath testifying before Congress, and/or is lying part of protecting the country?
Also, when the passcode was changed …. What was it change into?! Somebody must’ve typed a new passcode into the phone. What is it? Forgot?! Really?!
It was the Apple ID / iCloud password that was changed, not the passcode on the phone.
Who changed it, and what did they change it to?! If so, why does the FBI need a GovOS to brute-force a password for the iPhone? iCloud accounts can be accessed and changed via the web …
Because the iPhone now can’t back up to iCloud because the changed iCloud password can’t be updated in the passcode locked phone. Whether is was changed so that the iPhone can’t now be backed up and Apple had the data over so as to force this situation is a question I’d love to know the answer to.
Tim for President.
I think you can still do write-ins.
Why would we want Mr Cook to take a demotion? I am thankful he’s the head of the company I can trust.
Thank You for having the guts to stand up for what’s right.
To think the FBI doesn’t have a tech specialist that knows how this stuff works so they won’t make such critical stupid mistakes??? Brother!
I think the agency should be renamed the KKK – Klumsy Keystone Kops.
Maybe something with fewer “K’s” would be easier to sell.
That was intentional for added “WTF?” comedic effect. 🙂
I know and I disavow them! All of them!
The Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions if you do. Good luck Mr. Phelps. *POOF!*
Rename it to WTF instead.
By George I think you’ve got it!
Stupidity is the end result of the Gov’t continuing use of Blackberries and Androids.
No argument here.
During the hearing, there were two asshole congressmen asking Apple’s general counsel whether or not he had a bill drafted. WTF? When did it become the jobs of private attorneys to draft bills???
Apple to Congress member next month: OK, here is our draft encryption bill.
Congress member to staff: Take this draft bill and reverse everything in it. That’s what we’ll send to committee.
The FBI can go suck Cesspool Water!!! I don’t trust our Government one damn bit to do the right thing. We need Term Limits in both houses of our U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress really bad!!!
I wouldn’t completely rule out incompetence on the part of the FBI.
Hey 14-16, what’s up with Ted’s poor showing, except for Texas of course, that’s home.
I haven’t seen this possibility mentioned yet… shouldn’t apple keep backups of the iCloud password hashes? Then if something goes wrong they can restore it? I’d think they could actually put the old password back in, even if they don’t know what it’s plain text is.
No, if they had access to your information through your password then they could sell it to advertisers or whoever, and they have undertaken not to do that, unlike many companies who monetize your private data.
FBI “mistake made” YOU THINK?!?
Bravo the MDN take!
Love that phraseology: “Mistakes were made.”
And, in order to correct our mistake, we are using the government’s expensive legal resources to try to get the court system to create an entirely new theory of the law. We obviously can’t just admit we screwed up and as a result, can’t access information that we have determined is absolutely critical to our investigation.
Amazing.
DELIBERATE ‘mistake’? All signs point to YES.
So withdraw your court request FBI and end this ludicrous game you’re playing with Apple and the US Constitution!
Leo Laporte is at it again! He announced on one of his shows that the Apple conflict with the FBI was a phoney game by Apple to garner publicity . Further more, he went on to announce that Android phones were a lot more secure than any iPhone. One of his guests admonished him for being ridiculous the others kept quiet, too chicken shit to disagree
with Uncle Leo. What a buffoon! A Google paid lackey!
The fact that he has an audience who believes him is what’s scary. These people are the reason America is in the position we are in.
I keep coming back to the ridiculous fact that the terrorist destroyed her personal phone, the one she would have used to contact all her terrorist buddies etc. The phone at the center of all this is a work phone used for work related stuff only. I would not be surprised if Comey saw the info on this work phone was of no value in the investigation but saw how he could disable it and use it as a way to get Apple to create for him a backdoor to any iPhone he wants. Wow, I have so much distrust and suspicion for this FBI director. Apple’s allegiance has to be to the US Constitution and its protection of our freedoms—not the FBI. It’s shaping up as a tech companies vs FBI/Government battle. Freedom or escalating Government control? What kind of a scenario is all this leading to? Fortunately Apple is not going to give up on freedom, whatever happens!
This has been pretty widely speculated.
If they can’t even understand how and why to change a password why on earth should they be trusted with a mechanism to unlock any phone?