“The FBI’s stance on encryption benefits hackers, according to Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, speaking yesterday about the ongoing legal battle swirling around the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters,” Rich McCormick reports for The Verge. “‘Of course that’s not the way they are looking at it,’ Cue told Univision in a Spanish-language interview. ‘But really that’s what is happening.'”
“Cue’s interview was conducted in Spanish, but Apple provided an English translation soon after, showing the company going above and beyond its usual efforts to get its message out to a wider audience,” McCormick reports. “‘The Secretary of Defense (Ashton Carter), who is responsible for the NSA, wants encryption to continue getting more and more secure. Because he knows that if we create some way to get in, criminals and terrorists will get in. They don’t want that.’ But the Apple executive said that the FBI wanted to both maintain encryption but be allowed in when required, two concepts that couldn’t co-exist. ‘You either have security or you don’t have security,’ Cue said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, encryption is either on or off. This is a binary issue. There is no in-between. You either have encryption or you do not.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015
This is not about this phone. This is about the future. And so I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or in any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people’s abilities to protect themselves. If we take encryption away… the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people. Apple doesn’t own encryption. Encryption is readily available in every country in the world, as a matter of fact, the U.S. government sponsors and funs encryption in many cases. And so, if we limit it in some way, the people that we’ll hurt are the good people, not the bad people; they will find it anyway. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 2016
Oppose government overreach.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
SEE ALSO:
Obama Lists the ‘Tech Leaders’ Involved in new U.S. Cybersecurity Initiative and Purposely Snubs Apple – March 10, 2016
Snowden: U.S. government’s claim it can’t unlock San Bernardino iPhone is ‘bullshit’ – March 10, 2016
Apple’s Eddy Cue: Next the government will want to turn on your iPhone’s camera or microphone – March 10, 2016
FBI Director James Comey’s war on Apple and privacy is becoming a political problem for Obama and the Democrats – March 9, 2016
How Apple’s clarion call united the entire tech industry against U.S. government overreach – March 8, 2016
Apple CEO Cook decried Obama’s ‘lack of leadership’ on encryption during a closed-door meeting last month – February 29, 2016
Obama administration set to expand sharing of data that N.S.A. intercepts – February 28, 2016
Apple’s fight with U.S. could speed development of devices impervious to government intrusion – February 24, 2016
Petition asks Obama administration to stop demanding Apple create iPhone backdoor – February 19, 2016
Obama administration claims FBI is not asking Apple for a ‘backdoor’ to the iPhone – February 18, 2016
Obama administration wants access to smartphones – December 15, 2015
Obama administration war against Apple just got uglier – July 31, 2015
Obama’s secret attempt to ban cellphone unlocking, while claiming to support it – November 19, 2013