Victims of the mass shooting in San Bernardino in December are getting involved in the battle between the federal government and Apple over encryption, which was sparked by a judge’s order that Apple assist the government in cracking the iPhone owned by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
Reuters reports that some victims of the shooting planned to file a legal brief supporting the government’s position. The report quotes Stephen Larson, an attorney representing the victims, saying: “They were targeted by terrorists, and they need to know why, how this could happen.”
The report adds: “Larson said he was contacted a week ago by the Justice Department and local prosecutors about representing the victims, prior to the dispute becoming public. He said he will file an amicus brief in court by early March.”
Tech companies, meanwhile, are lining up on the other side of the case, with a number of them expressing support for Apple’s position.
Everyone who thinks that it is a good idea for an unlock for encryption should have to put their phones in the pool for the jailbreak. Let’s see if they want to have their phones unlocked. It is easy to stand up and make bold statements. It is something else to be a victim of encryption hacking. That is what is being set up if Apple or any other phone manufacturer develops a jailbreak for their encryption. It will not be able to be secret. And who then decides which phones get broken into? Anyone the gov’t suspects of drug use? or anyone that may have worked with one of these suspects or any other suspect. It is more than a slippery slope, it is a waterfall. The government cant even control the Secretary of State’s email. how will they control the use and abuse of this code hack? People need to get real serious about what is going to happen here. If you think the current phone calls and emails from dating services and loan companies are annoying, wait until they have no encryption barriers to your phone. Ask Hillary if she would be happy to turn her phone over to Apple to work out how to break the encryption.
I prefer the “Tin Foil Hat” response. When the government gives me the key to their encrypted communications then they can have mine
Doesn’t this country have the best code breakers in the world working in our government ? Come on. It’s 4-digits. Should take 3-minutes according to most hackers .
Oh, the FBI already tried the maximum 10-tries to unlock it (that anyone with an iPhone knows about) and failed? Guess what; the phone bricked just as advertised. Well that sounds like dumb police work. Dumb police work is not a private company’s concern.