Sir, plz don’t hack my iPhone!

On December 2, 2015 ISIS supporter Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked the Inland Regional Centre in San Bernardino, California, with guns and explosives, where they proceeded to kill 14 people and injure 22 more before dying in a police shootout. During the investigation, the FBI found Farook’s iPhone 5c that had been issued to him by his employer, San Bernardino County. The phone is locked by a passcode, therefore, the FBI then requested Apple to circumvent the phone’s security that Apple denied. Apple has refused to assist FBI to gain access to Farook’s phone even after the order from Federal judge’s, citing their security policy.

Why the FBI needs help is because the iPhone encryption is so sophisticated that they are unable to break it without wiping all data. Such a defence mechanism is actually a hallmark for Apple.  The data is protected by a code specific to the physical device and a passcode (PIN) set by the user. Without both numbers it is impossible for third parties to decrypt the phone’s content. Additionally, three security features i.e. the auto-erase function, the mandatory delay between entering incorrect passcodes, and the inability to use a computer to virtually unlock the iPhone are further stumping the FBI in unlocking the phone. FBI wants is for Apple to disable these security features so that the FBI can use “brute forcing”.

Matthew Green, cryptographer and associate professor at John Hopkins has a simple analogy for this problem. He asks to think of the iPhone as a bank inside which is a safe that has our information — emails, messages and photos. The FBI is outside the bank, unable to get through the front door to try to crack the safe. So it’s asking Apple to help get inside the bank so it can set up a safecracking team to try various combinations to open it. Former NSA contractor and privacy activist Edward Snowden claimed that the FBI can certainly assess the data on the iPhone by physically hacking the device that FBI is capable of doing it but don’t want to do.

 However, other tech giants like Google and Twitter, by privacy advocates, and technology security experts, are supporting Apple’s stance. These people are of the opinion that providing government access to encrypted devices will make everyone vulnerable. This, legal battle has fuelled debates on govt. power, privacy, digital rights, public safety and security. The technology today puts us in a fight between two ideals that we value i.e. privacy and safety.

The government has been framing their argument in a simple manner: for more security surrendering a little privacy is a must. The FBI has chosen this case to ask for decryption when at least 14 cases are pending in US courts asking Apple for their assistance is because this case being one of Terror attacks allows the FBI to position their argument as one for the greater good and hence have been able to gain the sympathy of a numerous American voters. Their argument deliberately obfuscates the dangerous precedent that a ruling in their favour would create. Apple would be forced to help other countries even if they were prosecuting their own citizens wrongly.

But unlocking this one iPhone is not a simple matter. People today are living their lives online and through technology. Thus the ability to secure their devices is extremely important. Also the government may not really be able to protect the “masterkey” it is asking Apple to create. Just last year, the federal government suffered many cyber attacks: The Office of Personnel Management’s security breach resulted in the theft of 22 million Americans’ information, including fingerprints, Social Security numbers, addresses, employment history, and financial records. And the Internal Revenue Service’s hack left as many as 334,000 taxpayer accounts compromised. And it’s not just the government suffering these hacks:  Target, JPMorgan, Home Depot, and more have all faced massive data breaches that left millions of Americans’ personal information exposed. Many of these people are just now starting to find out the extent of the damage done.

In the standoff between the government/FBI and the tech giant Apple about the San Bernardino shooter case it seems as if the average citizen opinion is yo-yoing between two extremes. In such a  scenario most Cellular carriers like T-Mobile or AT&T have remained neutral to government while consumer tech companies like Facebook have bluntly put forth support towards Apple and encryption of data. Apple has refused to build a backdoor entry to the Shooter’s iPhone 5C as according to them such a program could be misused later. The building of such a backdoor universal unlocking program would mean making every iPhone device on the planet vulnerable.

As the fight continues between the FBI and Apple what is necessary is taking into account the opinion of the people, the ones who will be affected by whatever the outcome is. In India also, our law is not ready for such complex situations. What we probably need is a strengthening of our national security while upholding the basic right of civil liberty established by the Constitution. One thing is clear; we need to be more vigilant than ever.

 (Acknowledgement to Ms Aashita Agarwal, London School of Economics and Political Sciences for her inputs and arguments).