BUILDING A “ BACKDOOR” TO IPHONE : AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

1. Was cook justified in his refusal to heed the US government

demand to build a one time access to the iphone retrieved from the
terrorist on grounds of protecting customer digital privacy?
2. Was apple obligation to protect customer privacy greater than its
obligation to contribute to national security?
3. What dilemmas did cook and the apple management team face in
this decision?
4. How couls the diilemmas be resolved?
5. What were the moral dilemmas facing cook and how would he
choose to address them?
6. Which was right : favouring customer privacy or favouring national
security and the right to live in a world increasingly threteaned by
international terrorism that operated across the seamless borders
afforded by digital technology?
7. How should cook handle this “ right- versus right “ problem?
8. Would his decision to safeguard his clients digital privacy become a
defining moment for cook, the chief office of the world’s hitherto
most valuable company?

As a company you cant lower your standard to customer, because there is

corrupted people in government also . no win win situation .

History :

- Snowden’s disclosures included revelations that questioned the

ability of apple product to withstand tampering and ensure
customer privacy

Apple and other technology companies faced increased pressure from

law enforcement agencies to share information about their customer and
devices

Ios 6 : only resident apple apps were encrypted by default

Ios 7 : encrypting all 3rd party data stored on customers phone by default
Ios 8 : it ensured that even its own engineers would be unable to extract
data from the mobile phone or tablets/

“ security and privacy are fundamental to design of all our hardware,

software, and services, including iCloud and new services like apple pay “

The sand Bernardino bombing and apple

TheFarook's phone was an iPhone 5c, running the latest version of the
mobile software, iOS 9.
The problem is, because the phone is encrypted, it can't.
A key focus of the investigation : to looking for a motive behind the attack
and to determine the reasons for the makeshift bom lab
The gov : in 2010 , the Obama administration proposed draft legislation
that would have forced rech companies like google and apple to provide
unencrypted data to government

The apple : Apple can't break the encryption on the iPhone (or its other
products), so he FBI has instead asked the company to disable certain
features that would help its agents to unlock the iPhone.

The FBI : wants to create a special version of the iPhone's software that
only works on the recovered device
-

http://fernfortuniversity.com/hbr/case-solutions/8341-building-a--
backdoor--to-the-iphone.php

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The following are few general points on this topic:

 Probably Apple should work with FBI and help them to unlock only this
particular iPhone used by the shooter. This should be done one-
time just for this case.
 The problem with the above approach is, if you help FBI one time,
they’ll keep sending court order in the future to Apple to help them on
several other investigations. May be Apple can’t say no at that time, as
it has already done it once.
 Probably Apple shouldn’t create any special iOS with any kind of
backdoor. This violates all the security protocols and policies. What is
the point of having a strong encryption to lock the data, when there is
a master key to bypass the security and get to the data directly?
 If Apple creates a backdoor just for FBI, and somehow if it falls into the
wrong hands (hackers, etc.), everybody’s data and privacy is in
jeopardy.
 If Apple helps US government, probably other countries will also
request Apple to help them with their investigation.
 From pure IT security philosophy point of view, putting a backdoor can
be morally wrong.
 Looking at from the point of view of family members of the victims in
this particular case, probably Apple should fully cooperate with FBI
and help them out in this case. This is morally the right thing to do.
 So far, in general, it was assumed that FBI or NSA can pretty much get
to the data once they get hold of the physical device. This used to be
case at least on a typical laptop or desktop few years back. But even
with NSA & FBI’s big budget, it is probably surprising for many to see
how they are behind all the security advancement that has happened
in the last few years.
 Several CEOs of big corporation are supporting Apple in this case;
including Facebook’s and Google’s CEO.
 On the other hand, Donald Trump is calling for a boycott of Apple until
they cooperate with FBI on this case. He also mentioned that he has
switched from iPhone to Samsung until Apple helps FBI.

The solutions :

Once the FBI delivers the iPhone to Apple, here is all Apple would have to
do.
- Modify the iOS software to change the number of times the decryption
code can be entered before the iOS encryption system deletes the
encrypted info.
- Apple already knows where that code is in the software, so a software
developer can go right to that module, change the signin attempt number
to 10,000 [the maximum possible number of 4-digit combinations], &
save the new iOS version w/ a new version code to allow the iOS software
on the iPhone to update itself.
- Using a hard-wired connection only, inside a secure testing environment
[which Apple should already have, to test new iOS updates], Apple
engineers/techs would have to update the iPhone that has the encrypted
info.
- When that process completes, Apple personnel would have to run the
“brute force” software cracking solution [freeware, freely available
online, but Apple should already have their own version, for testing
purposes] until the iPhone’s encryption is unlocked.
- At that point, the info the FBI wants to access could be copied & given
to the FBI.
- Afterward, [assuming the courts won’t need the iPhone as evidence] the
iPhone, AND the modified iOS update could be destroyed by Apple,
completely neutralizing ANY ‘danger’ of a “backdoor” threat to Apple’s
customer’s ‘privacy’.