Week 5. Hey Uncle Sam... Step back a bit.

An issue has arisen that I hope does NOT become a trend.  Eduard Kovacs (Securityweek.com) wrote the following article, “Grey Hat Hackers Helped FBI Hack iPhone”, the title says it all in my opinion.  This is a troubling concept in a lot of ways in that the Government of the United States is (allegedly) actively soliciting the help of hackers to break into an American company’s product in order to gain access into the device.  Not just one device, but all of them.   “At least one of the people who helped the FBI access the information on the San Bernardino shooter’s phone without triggering Apple’s protections is a grey hat hacker who provided the law enforcement agency a previously undisclosed software vulnerability”, says Kovacs.   I believe we all know the scenario, terrorists attack innocent Americans, Police and FBI find terrorist phone, FBI demands that Apple give them a back door into the product, Apple balks and a whole host of opinions, both pro and con, start to flow across the news wire.  The FBI said they paid “Researchers” to find the solution for them but a known hacker is not a researcher.  Sorry I am running off the rails here.  I understand the national security issues and the ramifications concerning this case, but isn’t there a legal process set up in this country to follow?

It seems that Uncle Sam feels they have a right to this back door and they use scare tactics and bullying under the guise of, “Keeping you safe” in order to justify their actions.  Here Uncle Sam, take a little bit more of my freedom from me so I can feel a little safer.  How about playing by the rules and abiding by the laws you have passed and not pretending that you are only looking out for our best interests.  No Uncle Sammy, you are looking out for your best interests and American industry be damned.

                                                                                  (Play.google.com and me)

I ranted today because I feel that it is important for all of us who care about National Security, Cyber-Security and about personal freedoms, to voice our concerns, we should be outraged that our government would demand such access then pay someone to come up with a solution and NOT give the solution to the company who is in charge of the vulnerability so they can fix it.  Keeping intellectual property secure and out of the hands of someone who will exploit it for gain is a major concern for every company in existence today or at least it should be.  Apple and thousands of other companies spend millions if not billions of dollars on Research and Development to perfect and supply a product to the masses and enlist the best and brightest minds to make sure those products meet strict security standards, so to have the government (Our government) knowingly compromise Apples intellectual property is mind boggling to me.

The Federal government could have gotten the data they desired and I even bet that Apple would have supplied it to them if the proper legal channels had been followed.  Put the Feds wanted more than the data, they wanted CONTROL!!.

That is not what our country stands for.