Interesting conundrum

[cstone]

Apple's letter to their customers - http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

"Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control."

IMO, I am fairly certain that no court or government agency will be able to force any person or corporation to do what the FBI is asking Apple to do. It would be different if Congress passed legislation requiring this type of feature be built into products. I am guessing that if that were the case, a group of companies would then challenge the legislation in court and then the companies and the public would know what the government was doing and we would have an idea on the limitations or capability of products sold in the USA. Then the blackmarket in bootlegged jail broken products would grow.

Many of these issues are not new. I had an interesting conversation back in 1992 with Phil Zimmermann regarding PGP. Many of the issues being discussed in today's issue with Apple iOS and their encryption are the same issues we discussed back in 1992. Zimmermann was correct then and I agreed with him then.

For anyone interested, here is an open letter Zimmermann wrote back in 1991 - https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/es...IWrotePGP.html