Apple mobile device hacking: Apple is working to make iPhones even more difficult to hack
Fearing that the government may be able to order to bypass the security features in new phone-model, Apple has begun work on improvements that would prevent the company to upgrade the software of an iPhone without knowing the password a user, according to people familiar with the effort.
These security enhancements would make it impossible for apple to help the government unlock new iPhones in the manner authorities want the company to do so now. The measure would force the authorities to find a new technical solution, even if they win the legal authority to force the company to unlock phones of suspects.
The move by Apple is another twist in a high-profile battle between Apple and the Department of Justice, which last week demanded that the company help unlock the iPhone Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the causes of death in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting rampage.
Improvements can not be installed on older phone models like the iPhone 5c used by Farook. But engineers are trying to solve a problem on newer models, which have a security feature called Secure Enclave that protects some of the most sensitive data, such as encryption keys on the phone. Currently, the software in the enclave Secure can be updated without knowing the password of a user.
So Apple engineers realized it was a vulnerability. These engineers began to think about addressing the issue before the attacks of San Bernardino, but the solution became a priority more recently, people familiar with the effort, which was first reported by the New York Times said.
Security experts hailed Apples move.
"They have never thought before they could be forced by the government to enter their own products and reverse the security procedures," said Jonathan Zdziarski, a security researcher has proposed a dozen solutions to the problem of Apple. "Now they have been forced into this way of thinking, a lot of security updates in the future will not only keep hackers, but to stay until the user authorizes the update."News of the technical solution the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook defended the refusal of the company to help the FBI access code to access the lock iPhone that belonged to Farook broke on the same day.
Why even FBI can, t hack the iPhoneCook said the FBI to help circumvent security iPhone "could expose people to the incredible vulnerabilities.""This would be bad for America. It also set a precedent that I think many people in America would be offended by," Cook said during an interview on ABCs "World News Tonight With David Muir."
Cook said Apple tried to help the FBI with other technology solutions, offering "significant advice" on how the iPhone could be violated. However, Apple does not want to go as far as the FBI says is needed now - writing software to get around the security of the phone. Cook called it "the software equivalent of cancer.""What is at stake here is the government can force Apple to write software that we think would make hundreds of millions of vulnerable customers worldwide, including the US, and trample civil liberties that are the foundation basics of what this country are made, "Cook said.Cook said that this case was about the future.
FBI Director James B. Comey, in a letter published on Sunday, wrote that this case highlights the tension between privacy and security.
"That tension should not be resolved by companies that sell things for life," Comey wrote.Cook, in his interview, insisted that obey the court order would mean the opening of hundreds of other Apple devices if the police wanted access to them as well .
"Its a slippery slope one not afraid. - Its one," Cook said.
Muir asked Cook if you have any doubt that the opening of this iPhone could help prevent a terrorist attack.
"David, some things are hard and some things are right. And some things are both" Cook said. "And this is one of those things."
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