White House Denies That DOJ is Asking Apple to Build Backdoor Into iPhone

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Posted February 17, 2016 at 7:20pm by iClarified

The White House has responded to an open letter from Apple CEO Tim Cook this morning, denying that DOJ is asking the company to build a backdoor into its iPhone, reports Reuters.

At a daily briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Department of Justice was asking for access to just one device.

"They are not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to one of their products," Earnest told reporters. He says the case is about authorities learning "as much as they can about this one case" and "the president certainly believes that is an important national priority."

In his letter to customers, Cook said "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."

This software could then be used by anyone who had it to unlock any iPhone, essentially giving them a backdoor into the device.

"In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession."

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White House Denies That DOJ is Asking Apple to Build Backdoor Into iPhone

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Yea - February 20, 2016 at 12:19am

@jaybird72 Sorry bro but hacking isn't illegal in this sense. Hacking someone else's computer with malicious intent without permission is illegal....By Apple hacking their own device is perfectly legal. Especially since the terrorist's cell phone was a San Bernardino county issued phone.The county gave consent for it to be hacked as well......please don't tell others to do their research please. Its rude.

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RAV4 Rich466 - February 18, 2016 at 11:43am

If the government asked everybody in the country for a key to their house and said will keep it in a safe place and only use it if we have a warrant to get into your house to search it. How many people would give the government a Key?

David - February 18, 2016 at 8:41am

They should carry out judgement against the culprits and leave this phone alone... The DOJ has always wanted to gain access into Apple encryption data and once that happens, I'm done with apple product..

Are they plain stupid? - February 18, 2016 at 1:04am

The locked phone is locked. Get over it. What the fkcu is this debate about?

Amriibacchus - February 17, 2016 at 11:16pm

They also denied everything Snowden leaked before he did

Vic - February 17, 2016 at 9:46pm

We're told we live in a free country. So act like it. They have no right into anyone's info.

NoGoodNick - February 17, 2016 at 7:58pm

Because Apple doesn't have the means to unlock anyone's phone. If you doubt that, just try forgetting your passcode and visit a Genius Bar.

Firespit - February 17, 2016 at 10:43pm

In the real life, they could unlock it but that would mean they wouldn't even respect their policies. Apple is fight against illegal unlocks / jailbreaking so I don't know why they would close their eyes on one case ^^

TheySayTheyDont - February 18, 2016 at 1:12am

Currently what Apple is trying to explain is that they do not have the technical power. They built a system which is encrypted. This way everybody has the same thechnical power to open it. Trying every single valid passcode.

Speaklogic - February 18, 2016 at 1:20am

They created the algorithm for the encryption for sure they know how to reverse engineering it. But you dont have to go that far just make the data copyable and you can brute force into with enough combination.

YesYouAreRightJustYouArent - February 18, 2016 at 8:43am

Apple engineers are so good that they say, that they managed to hide the traces of the following process: You set up an empty iPhone with the first valid passcode. (For e.g. abcdef) You copy the whole 32GB of data of the smallest phone. And if you do this again but change anything just one thing on any of the axises. For example change one letter in the passcode (to bbcdef) and compare the two 32 GB data dump, then this "one step" change is not visible by any algorithm. And that is because it is *magical sound* encrypted *magical sound finishes*. It might take a while to understand this, because it means something absolute best known(!) level of something, instead of the first (weakest encryption) or the second (a bit better encryption) level. Which many people think it means.

RAV4 Rich466 - February 18, 2016 at 11:47am

Would you rather them spend 10 hours working on your laptop and bill you had $100 an hour to fix it?

NoGoodNick - February 17, 2016 at 7:55pm

Such a distinction is meaningless. Either you possess a backside , which can be applied to ANY device, or you can't access the locked phone. The DOJ can spin whatever language they want, but they want to permanently cripple ALL iPhones to make spying on ANYONE a minor concern!

stevenlacross - February 17, 2016 at 7:44pm

Asking for a Backdoor for one iPhone is the same as asking for a Backdoor to all of them