Apple CEO Tim Cook Makes It Clear That He's Not At All Interested In Giving The Government Backdoors To iOS Encryption

from the good-for-him dept

Tue, Feb 17th 2015 11:09am — Mike Masnick

On Friday morning, we noted that the CEOs of Google, Facebook and Yahoo had declined to appear at the President's cybersecurity summit at Stanford, but that Apple CEO Tim Cook was going. However, we pointed out that all signs suggested Cook was going to send a message that he wasn't going to give in and allow the government a backdoor to iOS encryption. Cook had recently noted that the government "would have to cart us out in a box" before Apple would add a backdoor. And, indeed, speaking right before President Obama's speech, Cook delivered a strong defense of encryption and privacy:

“We believe deeply that everyone has a right to privacy and security,” said Cook. “So much of our information now is digital: photos, medical information, financial transactions, our most private conversations. It comes with great benefits; it makes our lives better, easier and healthier. But at Apple, we have always known this also comes with a great responsibility. Hackers are doing everything they can to steal your data, so we’re using every tool at our disposal to build the most secure devices that we can.”

[....]

“People have trusted us with their most personal and private information and we must give them the best technology we can to secure it,” said Cook. “Sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences. We live in a world where people are not treated equally. There are people who don’t feel free to practice their religion, express their opinion or love who they choose. Technology can mean the difference between life and death.”

[....]

“If we don’t do everything we can to protect privacy, we risk more than money,” said Cook. “We risk our way of life.”

It's great to see tech companies taking a stronger and stronger stand in protecting the privacy of their users and customers. Once again, thank Snowden for actually making this an issue that companies actually need to care about.

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Filed Under: backdoors, cybersecurity, encryption, ios, mobile encryption, privacy, tim cook

48 Comments

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Violynne (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 9:59am

What good is back door encryption when the front door is wide open.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:40am
  
  Re:
  gubmint needs to be able to spy on its citizens.
  
  They know they are steering USA to destruction, they need to be able to spy on the people considering the idea that they would defend this nation and its ideals.
  
  Ever notice how its bigotry to ask someone to speak your own language in your own country but not bigotry for someone to illegally enter, perform identity theft to survive & refuse to speak the common language of the land?
  
  Sun Tzu knows what the fuck is up. All war is deception... and with the US government deceiving everyone left and right it only means they are at war!
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:43am
    
    Re: Re:
    And the tin foil hat covered in "dirk er jrbs" award goes to....this guy.
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    - Agonistes, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:03pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Wow, amazing that the "tinfoil hat" line can still be trotted out not in irony by someone who reads Techdirt.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:07pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      you must not read much history do you?
      
      DHS is actively asking fellow citizens to spy on each other "See something, say something" they even have fucking posters printed for.
      
      NSA/FBI/Local Joe's has been actively spying on the US citizenry with ever increasing vigor.
      
      Sure I have a tin foil hat... I wear it when I want to have fun... but you are sort of idiot that has to wait until people are loaded onto trains and shipped to concentration camps before you "realize" something is damn wrong.
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      - scotts13 (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:04pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        "DHS is actively asking fellow citizens to spy on each other "See something, say something" they even have fucking posters printed for."
        
        I remember growing up in the 50's very well. We were constantly told how horrible life in Soviet Russia was, with the government watching everything you did, and encouraging neighbor to turn in neighbor, and child to turn in parent.
        
        Sound familiar?
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  - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:47pm
    
    Re: Re:
    I would point out that it is bigotry to ask someone to speak English in America is because English is not the national language. There is no national language.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:52pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I would argue that natural languages are riddled with bigotry and ambiguities. (to too two, etc)...English is a terrible auxlang (auxiliary language)....
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:41am
  
  Re:
  Yea, this....these phones/tablets (and androids, this isn't just an apple thing) are some of the least secure devices out of the box which you can get. It's a nice sentiment, but howsabout we work on locking down the devices a bit out of the box before we worry about what the government is trying to do on the back end?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:07pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Feel like backing that up a bit?
    There's a reason that jailbreaks are getting harder and harder to perform -- it's because the security holes required to do them are getting harder and harder to find.
    
    But that's securing *Apple's* part of the solution. What about user's data?
    
    Well, turns out that end-to-end encryption is default now. That means that out of the box, Apple's iOS devices are some of the most secure computing platforms you can get right now.
    
    Of course, the moment you install any apps, you've lost that security, as you have no way short of an external firewall of preventing those apps from communicating with whoever they want. The security model is fairly good in limiting what information the apps have access to, but you still have to assume that if the app has access to your address book and location data, that means the app's creator (and anyone with access to their encryption key/access to their communication protocol) ALSO has full access to your address book and location data, and can read/modify it all they like. Because there's no (easy) way to verify that they don't.
    
    But yeah... android devices are pretty insecure out of the box, but iOS devices are actually pretty good -- and you can opt out of most of the iCloud stuff if you don't want a public persistent data store of all your data.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:14pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Anyone that knows anything about security knows that the biggest security threat to any device is the user. Your Apple fanboism is sicking and your bold claims are even more disgusting.
      
      I'm impartial btw to both Apple and Android, but your assumptions about the current state of general security is just flat out WRONG.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:19pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Well, after installing a custom rom on my Android device I eliminated 80% of all malware that comes preinstalled on most apple and android devices. I have full control over every service that's running and I have no need to install anything beyound my needs. All I use it for is directions and to make phone calls and that's about it and that's all it can do because I MADE IT SO.
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    - R.H. (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:30pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Just a note, encryption is enabled by default in the most recent version of Android (5.0 - Lollipop) too.
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David, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:30am

Interesting
Cook is no Jobs. But it is getting harder to see that as a disadvantage for Apple.
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- PRMan, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:50am
  
  Re: Interesting
  Apple, Google and Yahoo seem to be the only companies even trying to stand up to the government by pushing back.
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  - David, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:59am
    
    Re: Re: Interesting
    Size matters. They are big enough to pull it off. A certain email provider wasn't so lucky.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 4:56pm
  
  Re: Interesting
  Off topic, but yeah I agree. Steve Jobs actually was sort of arrogant in my personal opinion, while I think Cook is a good mix of both Jobs and the Woz which made Apple. He's got the geeky and the PR man in the mix. That he brought his personal experiences and actually imho basically gave the finger to the president, shows he's at least looking out for public opinion and perhaps his users as well.
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  - John Fenderson (profile), 18 Feb 2015 @ 6:47am
    
    Re: Re: Interesting
    "Steve Jobs actually was sort of arrogant in my personal opinion"
    
    That's a bit like saying "water is actually sort of wet."
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:32am

So in other words..
So in other words, wait 6 months and they'll be touting backdoors as a feature?
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:41am
  
  Re: So in other words..
  much better to place high quality feed right before to drop the cage on them!
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- Roger Strong (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:47am
  
  Re: So in other words..
  And claiming that they were the first in the industry to have them.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:51am

Cameron will not be happy.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 11:56am

This is great. I still think Steve Jobs would've been better at "standing up to the government" and such, but it's good to see there are at least a few companies around that aren't willing to put backdoors in their products so easily.

That said, I wonder if the "cyber threat" info that Apple agreed to give to DHS includes zero-days...because in that case the NSA has just gained FREE (temporary) "backdoors" into all of Apple's products.
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- David, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:07pm
  
  Re:
  I still think Steve Jobs would've been better at "standing up to the government" and such,
  
  If he could feel bothered by it. Which is a pretty big "if".
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hij (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:01pm

diversity speaking
When people ask why diversity is important the quotes from the speech given above are a strong example of how diversity matters. People who come from groups outside of the "mainstream" have a different perspective and a greater understanding of the potential impacts of what they are doing. It is much easier for someone like Cook to understand the potential for violating privacy then someone whose actions have little or no repercussion with respect to the majority view.
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Felix Atagong (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:02pm

What if the US government leaves no choice, and then puts a gag order?
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Guardian, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:07pm

do you trust him
i do not trust any corporation....do YOU?
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afn29129 (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:07pm

Trust nobody
Test nobody. It may be nice to hear Apple stakeing a stand but
at the same time if users really want/need privacy then encrypt beforehand..... double layers of encrytion, that is..

Don't I love my PGP Whole Disc Encrytion. It's not possible to even boot this PC without a USB dongle AND passphrase.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:10pm
  
  Re: Trust nobody
  yep you are definitely a pedophile! get'em boys!
  
  ~your friendly government thug(s)
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Guardian, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:08pm

gag orders
A national security letter (18 U.S.C. § 2709), an administrative subpoena used by the FBI, has an attached gag order which restricts the recipient from ever saying anything about being served with one.[23] The government has issued hundreds of thousands of such NSLs accompanied with gag orders. The gag orders have been upheld in court

and thats just the usa ....

so he come sout against then they go order him to do so and slap a shut up or else order....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_order
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:26pm

Ios encryption? I wonder what he is talking about
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:40pm

ENCASE (and other computer forensics software)
Won't ENCASE beat the encryption anyways? So, what difference does it make?
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- nasch (profile), 18 Feb 2015 @ 7:43am
  
  Re: ENCASE (and other computer forensics software)
  Won't ENCASE beat the encryption anyways?
  
  I don't think so. From what I briefly read, it can read everything on a drive but I didn't see anything about breaking encryption.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 18 Feb 2015 @ 8:46am
  
  Re: ENCASE (and other computer forensics software)
  "Won't ENCASE beat the encryption anyways?"
  
  No.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:45pm

And why should I care?
This just in, nobody that uses Apple products cares about Apple...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:57pm

The blind leading the blind...
Doesn't matter if you have an Android or an Iphone...they're all out to rob you blind. pfft!
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 12:57pm

Not a particular fan of apple, but at least this guy is "putting his money where his mouth is"..........which is more then i can say for others in similar positions.............the hesitation of others to make such statements makes me really think about their stances..............this is not a wait and see, situation then expect everything to go back to normal.........that just tells me you'd be willing to go against the public should the chips happen to fall that way............instead of having the instinctual and natural disgust to this over empowering "authority" that you make damn sure everyone knew thats how you thought, through fear that if people dont speak up, that we'd sleep walk ourselves into the most capable tyrrany in history
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dave blevins (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:17pm

Ben Franklin
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin,

US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:28pm
  
  Re: Ben Franklin
  Are you trying to tell us that cell phones have some sort of inherit connection with Franklin?
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  - Zonker, 17 Feb 2015 @ 5:03pm
    
    Re: Re: Ben Franklin
    Yes. AT&T makes you give up one Benjamin a month to purchase a little temporary safety from advertisers spying, yet they believe you deserve neither 1 Gbps unlimited speeds nor safety from spying.
    
    (See previous article to get the reference)
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 1:32pm

Jobs was just a marketing guru...why are anyone of you assuming that he's also a security genius?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 2:05pm

I'm not so much worried about Apple inserting backdoors into iPads and iPhones. I'm more worried about the hardware manufacturers Apple sources their components from having backdoors built into them. For example, the baseband modem chip manufacturer using closed source software drivers.

I don't trust any hardware components unless open source software drivers are controlling them. Anything less, is security through obscurity.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 2:14pm

Backdoors are coming
Whether tech companies are compelled or do so willingly, their centralization will be their downfall. The feds are singlehandedly killing the competitiveness of American businesses.
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Fixed., 17 Feb 2015 @ 3:05pm

To "steal" your data
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streetlight (profile), 17 Feb 2015 @ 3:54pm

The louder one talks the less trustworty the message
The more we hear from Apple about how secure one's privacy is with their devices and how much they want to continue to insist they will do nothing in the future to compromise privacy the more I wonder how many back doors they have in their equipment. Take a look at the recent planting of code in hard drive firmware as drives were allegedly intercepted during shipment as an example that Apple might not be able to do anything about the security of privacy. Apple buys hard drives by the millions and probably doesn't know if they have been intercepted during shipment or even after they've been installed in a computer.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Feb 2015 @ 5:23pm
  
  Re: The louder one talks the less trustworty the message
  Man, try and purchase a hard drive that was manufactured by some company that couldn't have had it's firmware reverse engineered or possibly the source code given to the NSA. If you are talking about Kaspersky's discovery, it took bloodly 14 years to reverse engineer the code to even find out. I wouldn't even be surprised since foreign companies that were also linked, Samsung for example, to start lawsuits on behalf of the users to try and at least clear their hands of the matter. This is one of the things that going to start hopefully changing things, as other governments are going to realize that the US is actively attacking even mutual agreement companies with spyware. As the Pentagon stated in 2011, this is an act of war...
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2015 @ 2:25am

that's some great apple PR there..

I"m really sick of saying it; but no one seams to get it, or bother looking into it...

Encryption is useless because the baseband co-processor has access to main system ram. The phone company is remotely in control of the baseband- you have no authority there.

If the phone is powered off (it's probably not- you can't even remove iphone battery) AND the phone company hasn't already scraped your encryption keys from ram (that's probably automated...) then maybe it'd be of use.

yes, there's some speculation in my theory- but if it wasn't intended to be used in this way- why was it designed in this (highly insecure) way. sometimes a duck is a duck.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2015 @ 2:21pm
  
  Re:
  "Encryption is useless because the baseband co-processor has access to main system ram. The phone company is remotely in control of the baseband- you have no authority there."
  
  Bravo! You Sir, get a cookie. You're absolutely correct.
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