The big Apple news this week is that Apple is challenging a U.S. Magistrate Judge's order, pursuant to the All Writs Act of 1789, that Apple must help the FBI unlock the iPhone 5c that belonged to a gunman who, with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernadino, CA two months ago. Many, such as security expert Rich Mogull, believe that the FBI has been looking for the right case to set a legal precedent on the duty of a company like Apple to crack its own security when requested by the government, and with the horrific fact pattern of the San Bernadino shooting, the FBI may well hope that these facts will influence the ultimate legal ruling. In the past, Apple has complied with court orders to extract data from older iPhones that were locked. And even in this case, Apple turned over the data that it did have in its possession, including an iCloud backup of the iPhone in question from about two months before the shooting.
What Apple is resisting now is an attempt to force Apple to hack into the iPhone. This iPhone is running iOS 9, which not only makes it impossible to extract data from a locked phone, but also has built-in protection against a hacker guessing the password. If you look on your iPhone in Settings, and then tap Touch ID & Passcode, at the bottom there is a setting that erases all data on the device after 10 failed passcode attempts. So if the FBI just starts trying to guess the password and guesses wrong too many times, it risks losing all of the data on the phone, data that the FBI believes could be pertinent to its investigation.
To get around Apple's own security and comply with this order, the FBI wants to force Apple to create a special version of iOS 9 and load it onto this iPhone 5c, a special iOS that doesn't include the limitation of only 10 attempts, and one that also lets the FBI use a computer to rapidly enter different passcodes, many different times every second, so that the FBI could try to get access quickly. It has to be Apple that creates this special version of iOS — some have dubbed it FBI-OS — because the iPhone will only install a new operating system that is digitally signed by Apple itself. So the question of the day is, should the FBI be permitted to force Apple to create FBI-OS?
Apple CEO Tim Cook posted an open letter this week explaining why Apple opposes this. It is very interesting and well written, and I encourage you to read it if you haven't done so already. In short, Apple is opposed to being forced to create a backdoor to its security. Once a backdoor is created, there is no guarantee that it would be used only in this one instance. Indeed, that may be why the FBI wants to create the legal precedent (and the tool), so that it can use it in many other cases.
Moreover, if Apple creates this backdoor for the FBI, it would presumably have to make it available to other governments in countries where Apple does business when they ask for it in an investigation, including oppressive regimes with a different view on human rights. And even if you assume that all governments only do what everyone would agree is good (ahem), it seems unrealistic to expect that FBI-OS, once created, would only be used by governments. Getting access to this tool would be such a tempting prize for hackers that it could just be a matter of time before it falls into the wrong hands.
As California attorney Megan Zavieh writes at Lawyerist.com, lawyers should pay particular attention to this case because of the privacy issues that are at stake. Moreover, there are serious questions about whether this order is a proper application of the 200-year old All Writs Act. This is a fascinating and important legal issue. I'm glad that Apple is taking a stand, and it will be interesting to see how this develops in the courts.
And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- ABA TECHSHOW takes place in Chicago in just a few weeks, and I'll be there. Because this is the 30th anniversary of TECHSHOW, the ABA has been talking to some of the attorneys who were in charge of the early conferences. Dan Hagens talks about the first TECHSHOW in 1986, when a big topic was using personal computers from IBM or Apple to do legal work. Jeff Aresty talks about the 1988 TECHSHOW, when there was as much interest from paralegals as attorneys because many attorneys didn't handle their own technology.
- Los Angeles attorney Jeffrey Kent reviews the Staad Attaché bag from WaterField Designs as a case for the iPad Pro on his Mobile Barbarian website.
- California attorney David Sparks discusses typing on the iPad Pro.
- New York attorney Nicole Black discusses smartwatch use by lawyers.
- South Carolina attorney Justin Kahn discusses an update to Adobe Acrobat Reader for iOS that brings support for the iPad Pro and iOS 9.
- Security expert Bruce Schneier writes an article in the Washington Post explaining why Apple's position on FBI-OS is correct. For example, he writes: "What the FBI wants to do would make us less secure, even though it’s in the name of keeping us safe from harm. Powerful governments, democratic and totalitarian alike, want access to user data for both law enforcement and social control. We cannot build a backdoor that only works for a particular type of government, or only in the presence of a particular court order. Either everyone gets security or no one does."
- Brad Stone, Adam Satariano, and Gwen Ackerman of Bloomberg Businessweek interviewed Johny Srouji, the Apple VP who is in charge of creating the chips used in iPads and iPhones. It's an interesting article and provides a view into a side of Apple that you don't often hear about, even though it is incredibly important to Apple's success.
- Rob Haskell of Vogue Magazine interviews Apple's Tim Cook and Jony Ive to discuss the intersection of technology and fashion.
- Rene Ritchie of iMore shares shortcuts in the Mail for iOS app that you might not know about.
- Jonny Evans of ComputerWorld discusses 3D touch shortcuts in the iPhone Messages app that you might not know about.
- Jonny Evans also discusses tips for using the Apple Maps app that you might not know about.
- Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal compares the new Fitbit Blaze to the Apple Watch.
- Chance Miller of 9to5 Mac reports that all of the photography in the March issue of Bon Appétit magazine was shot using iPhones.
- Speaking of food, John Callaham of iMore reports that you can now use the Domino's pizza app to order a pizza from your Apple Watch, avoiding the effort required to reach for your iPhone or computer.
- And finally, in the ultimate mashup of old and new, you can now play Pong (from 1972) on your Apple Watch with the app A Tiny Game of Pong. The app is free, but if you pay a buck you can unlock another game mode and the ability to change the color. I played it last night, and it was simple and fun — a good combination for an Apple Watch app. Here is a video showing it in action:
