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Alarms The FBI accuses Apple of trying to “alarm this Court with issues of network security, encryption, back doors, and privacy, invoking larger debates before Congress and in the news media.” “That is a diversion,” the filing asserts. “Apple desperately wants—desperately needs—this case not to be 'about one isolated iPhone.'” According to Wired, Apple General…

Civil War Surveillance by the Bad Guys In my opinion (and the opinion of people far smarter and more knowledgable than me), protecting ourselves from criminal and foreign threats requires strong encryption, unbreakable encryption. This has the unfortunate side effect of similarly protecting criminals, terrorists, and foreign entities from our good guys. That stinks, but…

DOJ appeals New York ruling denying iPhone unlock order In the New York case, Federal agents asked the court for an order compelling Apple to help unlock an iPhone seized as part of an investigation into Jun Feng and a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy. They're hoping the iPhone's encrypted data includes the names of fellow conspirators.…

Image credit: Shutterstock. 1. If the iPhone is the favored smartphone of criminals and terrorists for security and privacy, then we should be using an Android phone instead for our banking and credit card purchases. • True • False 2. If Apple builds the “govtOS” that the FBI wants Apple to build, and defense attorneys…

Below are some services commonly-used by Apple users along with who holds those keys: Apple Services iCloud Backups – Stored on Apple's servers, encrypted with Apple's keys. iTunes Backups – Stored on your computer, encrypted with your keys if you choose to do so (but you then might also store those keys in your system…

“Removing device encryption due to lack of customer use is an incredibly poor excuse for weakening the security of those customers that did use the feature,” Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters. He added, “Given that the information stored on a tablet can be just as sensitive as that stored…

Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing a company that refuses to cooperate in a terror investigation that left 14 Americans dead on American soil,” Mr. Jolly said in a statement. He added: This is an order to cooperate in preventing the deletion of evidence on a single phone of a terrorist murderer…

Episode #164   It’s no secret that the printer and ink business is similar to the razor and razor blade business: Both of them sell hardware—the printer or razor—as cheaply as possible, making most of their profits on the consumables— the ink or razor blades. It’s not a bad strategy for a business, but it's…

Apple leases former Pepsi plant for unnamed projects The lease started in November, 2015, and was discovered by Silicon Valley Business Journal only a few days ago. The facility, located at 960 Kifer Road, covers 96,000 square feet and has been vacant since 2013. Apple is also leasing 80,257 square feet at 1150 through 1170…

FBI Director Comey testifying at House Judiciary Committee hearing on encryption Today's hearing was spurred by the debate over the legality of an FBI obtained court order requiring Apple to create a password hackable version of the iPhone's operating system. The FBI wants the tool so it can find the passcode on an iPhone related…

There were some individual shareholders who certainly think Apple is wrong, including one unnamed attendee who told The LA Times, “I do think they should unlock it. For something as serious as this, there should be a way to do it.” Security and encryption experts, however, have long understood that this is a situation where…

FBI Director James Comey The FBI asked a federal court to compel Apple to create a new version of iOS that could be sideloaded onto an iPhone used by Sayed Farook, one of two terrorists who murdered 14 people in an attack in San Bernardino, CA, in December of 2015. The court agreed, but Apple…

Silicon Valley companies to file amicus brief supporting Apple in privacy fight According to sources speaking with the Wall Street Journal, the companies will file a joint brief with the court next week. Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith confirmed today his company would be supporting Apple in its brief. Twitter is planning on submitting…

Gizmodo reported that CIA Director John Brenner and NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett blamed the media for terrorists turning to encryption in a hearing by the House Intelligence Committee. This is not only a dangerous idea for a free society, it shows that some of our top intelligence folks are drawing precisely the wrong lessons…

App: Constitution for iPhone and iPod Touch If you love the constitution, the right to privacy, and America, you should support Apple against the government's push to destroy your civil liberties. Although there are many technical nuances that can mire down the discussion around this issue, 3 tried and true constitutional arguments against eroding our…

Reuters/Ipsos Poll First off, let's look at the Reuters/Ipsos survey results, which shows that 46 percent of people agreed with Apple's decision to fight the court order. 35 percent disagreed. The poll broke down results by political affiliation, just 37 percent of Republicans agreeing with Apple, while 45 percent disagreed. For those identifying as Democrats,…

The just released Satechi Aluminum Wireless Presenter is a beautifully designed red LED laser pointer combined with slide navigation buttons, all wrapped in Bluetooth and a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. It's available in the matching Apple colors of Silver, Space Gray or Gold. Satechi  Aluminum Wireless Presenter The Laser This is red LED laser with a…

More iPhone unlocking cases are lining up Sources speaking with the Wall Street Journal said the DOJ is trying to get at potential evidence on iPhones with passcode locks in place, much as it is doing in the San Bernardino case. These 12 other cases, however, don't involve terrorist acts, and are essentially on hold…

Pew Survey Chart Pew surveyed 1,002 people, half on landlines and half on cellphones. 51 percent sided with the FBI, while 38 percent thought that Apple should not unlock the iPhone. In reality, Apple has not been ordered to unlock the iPhone, but instead was ordered to create a new operating system that could be…

DOJ to court: Make Apple comply with iPhone unlocking order DOJ prosecutors said Apple is resisting to help in a Federal investigation despite the fact that the company has until February 26 to respond to the court order. According to ABC News, the new filing stated, Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a…

It's been a bit of a war of words so far. Chairman Wheeler has noted that while the cost of computers has gone down dramatically, the cost of these set-top boxes, typically DVRs, has not, and the customers are paying hefty annual rental fees of about $200. And if the customer wants to cancel service…

Episode #163   It’s been a couple of years since I talked about universal remote control devices and apps. For me, an awesome universal remote control is the holy grail of home automation; having a single device that can mimic every function of all five individual remote controls for my home theatre system is priceless.…

Warning! Creative Cloud bug could delete files without permission The bug deletes the contents of the hidden folder that's alphabetically first on user's hard drive when they log into Creative Cloud. In some cases, that folder holds system-critical files, or in the case of Backblaze subscribers, the data used to keep track of which drives…

This is happening in two stages. First, I have seen the community of Mac users steadily replacing the boot drives in their Macs with SSDs (or direct Flash memory). This started first on the MacBook Air and is now common on iMacs. I first did this in 2010 when I paid an extra US$400 to…