The FBI has released the following statement in regards to the court orders to release the information about the San Bernardino suspect’s iPhone – a matter which has drawn world-wide attention.
“The San Bernardino litigation isn’t about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice. Fourteen people were slaughtered and many more had their lives and bodies ruined. We owe them a thorough and professional investigation under law. That’s what this is. The American people should expect nothing less from the FBI.
The particular legal issue is actually quite narrow. The relief we seek is limited and its value increasingly obsolete because the technology continues to evolve. We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That’s it. We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land. I hope thoughtful people will take the time to understand that. Maybe the phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. Maybe it doesn’t. But we can’t look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don’t follow this lead.
Reflecting the context of this heart-breaking case, I hope folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other. Although this case is about the innocents attacked in San Bernardino, it does highlight that we have awesome new technology that creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure—privacy and safety. That tension should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living. It also should not be resolved by the FBI, which investigates for a living. It should be resolved by the American people deciding how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before. We shouldn’t drift to a place—or be pushed to a place by the loudest voices—because finding the right place, the right balance, will matter to every American for a very long time.
So I hope folks will remember what terrorists did to innocent Americans at a San Bernardino office gathering and why the FBI simply must do all we can under the law to investigate that. And in that sober spirit, I also hope all Americans will participate in the long conversation we must have about how to both embrace the technology we love and get the safety we need.”
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this is my theory. why would apple and the fbi go public with this story? the whole thing doesn’t make any sense. what happened is like this, five years ago all terrorist cells and groups used encrypted cell phones to communicate.
comes along snowden and others and the terrorist and criminals realize that the fbi/cia/nsa can listen to everything they say.
the answer for this is to go “dark” no communication. they had to communicate in other ways other then cell phones. this is causing the fbi a big headache, now that is harder to keep tabs on criminals.
so the FBI comes over to Apple and asks for a favor at the same time giving great free press for the company. they tell apple to come out that not even the FBI can crack into your phone!!
now behind closed doors we have no idea what really happens, so we will never know if the CIA or FBI can or cant get info from the iPhone but what it will do is get criminals and terirosts to say “hay lets all get iphones so we can communicate secretly” this gives the agencies a hold on the chatter again and it makes apple look like it has the “safest” phone