Lavabit founder Ladar Levison is warning that if the FBI wins out in forcing Apple to comply with the Bernardino court order, iOS users may refuse to update their devices and tech companies may opt to leave the US.
If you have in your possession a regular inkjet printer, a certain type of compatible ink, and fifteen minutes of spare time, then you could be well on your way to bypassing the biometric security on a smartphone. A recently conducted research has concluded that using a certain technique, it is in fact possible to gain unofficial access to a smartphone protected by a fingerprint scanner. How? By printing an image that uses a specialized conductive ink. Here's how this trick works.
Popular BitTorrent Mac app Transmission is infected with a ransomware that can encrypt your computer. Here's what you need to know about it.
Apple's decision to contest a legal order that tries to force it to provide a backdoor into the iPhone for the FBI has dramatically divided public and professional opinion over the last few weeks. A federal order has requested Apple to work in conjunction with the FBI in order to build what Tim Cook has referred to as "the software equivalent of cancer" in San Bernardino shooting case. Apple has made a formal appeal against that order, which will be heard on March 22nd. While most tech companies, both in and out of Silicon Valley, are in full support of Apple on the issue, and have now also filed amicus brief in support of Apple, one rival company Samsung has decided to take a neutral stance, of sorts, on it.
A new concern for Apple has come to light with experts suggesting the company could be looking at anything from heavy fines to jail time for CEO Tim Cook if it continues to deny the FBI's demands for backdoor access to the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.
In a separate iPhone unlocking case, a New York judge has ruled in favor of Apple, concluding that the U.S. Justice Department/FBI can't force Apple to hack its own iPhones to provide data based on All Writs Act.
Rather than face the laborious process of having to defend itself against governmental requests and court orders once again, Apple is said to be looking internally at strengthening its cloud encryption in order to effectively make it impossible to comply with court requests for data in the future. A number of sources who are seemingly familiar with Apple's plans have suggested that the Cupertino-based company is assigning engineering resources to add encryption to iCloud backups in such a manner that it's impossible to comply with valid data requests from government agencies.
Report compares security on iOS, the mobile operating system on Apple's iPhone, vs Google's Android. Just how secure is the smartphone in your pocket?
Apple has filed a motion to what it hopes will prevent it from creating "GovtOS" which will enable FBI access to an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. The motion filed claims that the court order to allow the FBI access to the aforementioned iPhone gives FBI "dangerous power" that breaches the company's constitutional First Amendment right to free speech.
It is being reported that Apple is working extremely hard internally on building an iPhone that nobody can hack into. Attention has recently been lavished onto Apple in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting in California, with law enforcement agencies applying pressure on the company to create a new version of iOS that introduces a backdoor to bypass security. This latest report suggests that Apple is responding to the security storm by trying to build an even more secure device and ecosystem that would make it impossible to break into iPhones, even for Apple. In other words, this would effectively make FBI's current requests useless.
