Well-known manufacturer Apple has been in a bitter fight with the FBI for years now because of their encryption system. This system allows customers to prevent anyone from opening their phones without their own permission. Now, if you’re a law-abiding citizen, this doesn’t mean much else to you except that your information will be safe. However, in some cases, this creates conflicts.
FBI cracking open iPhone encryption
EmptyWheel, a well-known security blog says that the Department of Justice is using a legal way to crack the encryption on iPhones. This became significant last year when the FBI was trying to crack open a dead terrorist’s iPhone. Apparently, they managed to do this without help from APPL. However, the latest situation started boiling between Apple and the FBI when it was time to crack open the phone that belonged to the Texas church shooter. This phone has an updated software that the Federal Bureau of Investigation apparently cannot crack.
APPL isn’t cooperating
Apparently, Apple is dedicated to keeping their consumer’s information safe, simply because there have been no reports that Apple would have been willing to help the FBI crack any encryptions. This being the case, Department of Justice has been trying to invoke Section 702.
NSA might step in
While the FBI and Apple arm wrestle about this security breach, the NSA might need to step in in certain cases by relying on Section 702. Even though this section is mainly meant for foreigners, some loopholes can tie it into Americans.
This battle is currently reaching a settlement. As far as we know, the Department of Justice might settle this in secret. This is too big of a case to leave hanging. Of course, something needs to happen, since we know that neither the FBI nor Apple will budge.
