The FBI Claims Failure To Guess Password Will Make Data 'Permanently Inaccessible,' Which Isn't True
from the all-in-service-of-future-writs-and-exploitations dept
The FBI's attempt to force Apple to help it break into an iPhone hasn't been going well. A lot of that has to do with the FBI itself, which hasn't exactly been honest in its portrayal of the case. It tried to fight off claims that it was trying to set precedent by claiming it was just about this one phone… which worked right up until it dropped details about twelve other phones it couldn't break into.
Comey's protestations of "no precedent" were further undermined by law enforcement groups filing briefs in support of the FBI that basically stated they, too, would like Apple to be forced to comply with orders like these. And then there was the whole thing about some "dormant cyber pathogen" that was basically laughed off the internet within hours of its appearance.
There were also claims that Apple has done this sort of thing 70 times in the past but was just being inexplicably obstinate this time for reasons the FBI could not comprehend. But that wasn't true either. Apple does provide law enforcement with access to data it can retrieve from its end -- which is nothing like writing software that would allow the FBI (and anyone else who gets their hands on it -- or who makes similar demands following an FBI win) to bypass the security features of its phones.
Dan Gillmor of the ACLU has taken another look at the FBI's motion to compel and found it has misrepresented how Apple's "auto-erase" (which occurs after a certain number of failed login attempts) actually works.
The FBI has been unable to make attempts to determine the passcode to access the SUBJECT DEVICE because Apple has written, or “coded,” its operating systems with a user-enabled “auto-erase function” that would, if enabled, result in the permanent destruction of the required encryption key material after 10 failed attempts at the [sic] entering the correct passcode (meaning that, after 10 failed attempts, the information on the device becomes permanently inaccessible)…That's not what actually happens, Gillmor points out. All data is not erased once 10 failed attempts are recorded. An agency with as many technically-astute employees -- as well as access to a variety of data recovery and software forensic tools -- should know -- or likely does know -- that it doesn't work this way. The phone doesn't erase all of the data, nor does it make it "permanently inaccessible." Instead, it just destroys one of the keys to the data.
The key that is erased in this case is called the “file system key”—and (unlike the hardwired “UID” key that we discussed in our previous blog post) it is not burned into the phone’s processor, but instead merely stored in what Apple calls “Effaceable Storage,” which is just a term for part of the flash memory of the phone designed to be easily erasable.The data is still intact. The front door isn't. But the FBI can work around this by preventing the key from being destroyed in the first place -- without Apple's help.
So the file system key (which the FBI claims it is scared will be destroyed by the phone’s auto-erase security protection) is stored in the Effaceable Storage on the iPhone in the “NAND” flash memory. All the FBI needs to do to avoid any irreversible auto erase is simple to copy that flash memory (which includes the Effaceable Storage) before it tries 10 passcode attempts. It can then re-try indefinitely, because it can restore the NAND flash memory from its backup copy.Even if the FBI fails in its attempts to brute force the code, the data on the phone remains intact. By working with a copy of the flash memory, the FBI can restore the phone to its "10 guesses" state repeatedly until it finally guesses the code.
The FBI can simply remove this chip from the circuit board (“desolder” it), connect it to a device capable of reading and writing NAND flash, and copy all of its data. It can then replace the chip, and start testing passcodes. If it turns out that the auto-erase feature is on, and the Effaceable Storage gets erased, they can remove the chip, copy the original information back in, and replace it. If they plan to do this many times, they can attach a “test socket” to the circuit board that makes it easy and fast to do this kind of chip swapping.It's literally unbelievable that the FBI doesn't have access to the tools to perform this or the expertise to get it done. Which leads Gillmor back to the inescapable conclusion: this isn't about one iPhone or even twelve of them. This is about convincing a judge to read the All Writs Act the way the FBI would like it to be read -- a reading that would not only push the envelope for what it can demand from unrelated parties in the future, but that would also give it software to modify and exploit.
If it gets to that point, device users are going to have to start eyeing software/firmware updates very suspiciously.
The FBI wants to weaken the ecosystem we all depend on for maintenance of our all-too-vulnerable devices. If they win, future software updates will present users with a troubling dilemma. When we're asked to install a software update, we won’t know whether it was compelled by a government agency (foreign or domestic), or whether it truly represents the best engineering our chosen platform has to offer.This is the end game for the FBI, even though it doesn't appear to realize the gravity of the situation. To it, Apple is the obstacle standing between it and the wealth of information it imagines might possibly be on that phone. Even is Apple is forced into compliance and the phone contains nothing of use, it will still have its precedent and its hacking tool and we'll be headed towards a world where patch notes contain warrant canaries.
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Filed Under: all writs act, burden, doj, fbi, hacking, iphones, passwords, security
Companies: aclu, apple
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True or not
Hansen was an exemplar. He should have been caught dozens of times over, but was let go repeatedly.
What has the FBI done for us lately? Capture our personal phone calls? Lie about what it is doing? Lie about the risks that we face? Hype fear? Entrap morons and imbeciles as terrorists, when they don't know what the word means? Fail to substitute a dummy explosive in the first WTC bombing when it knew what was happening, and had the opportunity? Invent laboratory tests that a 9th grader has the knowledge to shred as unworkable? And ever so much more.
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Not lately, but ...
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Uh oh
Side note: Comey needs to be called back before Congress to answer this question.
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Re: Uh oh
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Which would still be more honest.
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This is what happens
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Director Comey's answer
I would have to re-watch the video to give Director Comey's precise answer. I don't want to mischaracterize Director Comey's testimony.
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Re: Director Comey's answer
I guess I wouldn't actually have to re-watch the vido. Although that means I haven't verified the accuracy of the C-SPAN transcript.
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Re: Re: Director Comey's answer
This is so astoundingly backwards it isn't even funny. What is dysfunctional is that the leadership of the FBI is claiming here that he has no clue about the capabilities of those under him within the agency.
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Re: Re: Director Comey's answer
Uh, no actually, the fact that you can't shows dysfunctional leadership. If you don't personally know then it was your responsibility to ask one of your more knowledgeable employees and have then explain what was and was not possible.
Willful ignorance is not a quality one wants to see displayed by anyone in a leadership position, and certainly not the leader of the gorram FBI.
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Perhaps that happened, and he found himself incapable of understanding the explanation. Can't admit that to Congress though.
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After that video, I've got another House committee queued up. Ugggh. Any others I should look at—or at least listen to?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Director Comey's answer
That Techdirt story didn't mention Sen. Feinstein's questions beginning about the 55:20 mark:
That line of questioning continues for a bit beyond what I've transcribed here, up until about the 58:35 mark.
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Thanks for this
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Re: Thanks for this
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Here's how unbelievable it is
Just to drive this point home, I'm sitting here right now looking at my small hobbyist electronic workbench and realizing that I have all of the tools and skills needed to so accomplish this right now.
And I am not an EE, I'm a software guy who likes to solder things. I imagine that an actual expert would consider it child's play.
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Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
After all that Comey and the FBI has said and done in the last couple of years, I'm starting to think they should be defunded for sheer incompetence.
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My inference is that since I am capable of it using equipment I have on hand right now, actual trained experts using a real lab should find this simple.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
I was referring to the larger assertion that effaceable storage is located in the NAND flash chip on the iPhone 5c, and to the assertion that physical removal and replacement of that storage device is a viable attack method on the pin.
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And seriously, we're talking what, a few hundred dollars? If they don't manufacture ONE plot, they'll have plenty of money left over for pizza & wings.
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Sorry, I got confused. You were replying to my comment, so I thought you were talking about my assertion. Carry on.
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About the people in that video -- I've been told that the techniques that are generally shared amongst the legit hobbyist community for working with this stuff were pioneered by street vendors just like those. It may be apocryphal, but it seems plausible.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
Do you need special tools for that? I've looked at surface mounted components and I can't imagine trying to solder/unsolder them "by hand". Even the smallest iron I've seen (admittedly I'm not an expert on soldering irons) would probably cover several of the contacts at once on a typical chip.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
Otherwise, if you have a fine soldering iron tip, steady hand, and patience, then you can just use a soldering iron. A fine tip iron is still large compared to the lead size, but it works. I can even hand-solder fine wire into those leads.
Desoldering is much, much easier than soldering. I just use desoldering braid for that.
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Many years ago, I bought a cheap, pencil type iron because it claimed that the low heat and pointed tip were ideal for electronics work. Unfortunately, there's only one area of the tip that gets hot enough to actually melt solder (on the side, a millimeter back from the tip) and it doesn't even get hot enough to use desoldering braid. I've bought a couple new tips over the years, but they all behaved the same way.
When I splice electrical cords (like for example if I find a DVD player in the trash with the cord cut off), it takes forever to get the solder to flow around the wires. Half the time it just balls up on the tip of the iron rather than flowing onto the wires.
I know I should get something better, but every time I look into it, I end up convincing myself that I wouldn't use it enough to spend the money. I really know nothing about electronics and my projects involving simple wire soldering are few and far between.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
A trick I learned that improved everything for me was to avoid low-temperature irons for electronics work. It's better to do the opposite: go high-temperature. I usually run mine around 340C these days. It's counterintuitive, but running at a low temperature increases the odds of heat damage because you have to hold the heat to the part longer. It's better to get in and out fast. Even at a high temp, you can get out fast enough that the heat can't propagate very far.
Also, soldering big, thick wires like speaker wires is a totally different thing than soldering electronic parts. That wire makes a terrific heat sick. You certainly want a hotter iron for that sort of work.
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Sink, not sick. But somehow it works either way.
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"Half the time it just balls up on the tip of the iron rather than flowing onto the wires."
This can happen regardless of what you're soldering, and it means one of two things (or both): either the metal you're soldering isn't clean (it's actually dirty or, more likely, it has a layer of oxidation) and/or you need to use more flux than is in the solder you're using (you are using rosin-core solder, right?).
Cleaning the wire ends, applying flux, and tinning them before soldering should eliminate that problem.
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I don't mind. :)
Yes, according to the label on the spool it's rosin-core.
I always apply some flux to the wires. My grandfather used to always did that, so I've followed his example. I tin small wires if I'm attaching them to something like a toggle switch or DB9 connector, but with things like electrical cords, I usually don't. The reason for this is that my iron takes so long to get the solder flowing, I find it very awkward to hold two tinned wires together and hold the iron on them. It's easier to twist them together so that they stay on their own and then apply the solder. Of course then I have to try and squash the soldered wires down against the cord so that I can wrap tape around it and I end up with an unsightly bulge in the cord. I've also used heat-shrink tubing, but my iron takes forever to shrink it and then only the spot that I touch shrinks. I tried using a lighter, but ended up melting some of the normal insulation as well.
My grandfather used to have an old iron with a 1/4" wide tip that got quite hot. He never seemed to have any trouble soldering anything. Unfortunately it, along with most of the rest of his tools, disappeared after his death. My grandmother and mother either sold or gave most of his stuff away.
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Re: Here's how unbelievable it is
I am an EE, and I've both done chip design and worked with the FBI. In my experience, typical FBI agents are arrogant asses who think that they know just about everything about everything and view themselves as some kind of demigods. So if they can't do it themselves (and they probably can't), then they think it just can't be done.
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McAfee
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-ill-decrypt-san-bernardino-phone-for-free-2016-2
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Re: McAfee
"Just because I'm crazy doesn't mean I'm wrong."
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Re: McAfee
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/03/john-mcafee-better-prepare-to-eat-a-shoe-because-he-do esnt-know-how-iphones-work/
What is described here is a completely different approach. McAfee was talking about trying to recover the password. The password isn't stored anywhere on the device. This approach is about restoring the key from a backup after it gets erased due to the auto-erase feature.
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Aside from setting precedent, the other issue is if the FBI had to make a lot of effort that would just get them into this one phone, they have to come to terms with the fact that there likely isnt anything useful on it.
The only real value in this one phone is the possibility it opens the door to getting into itger phones
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Legal question here
Will that pass 'chain of evidence' challenges?
It's one thing to copy files from one device to another. AFAIK if a copy is made to a non-erasable media it's accepted in court, but a copy made to an erasable media has problems. But removing the original storage media, especially if it wasn't intended to be removed, might present issues for chain of evidence.
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Re: Legal question here
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Testimony from forensic technicians is also evidence. In these circumstances, they'd probably mark or initial the original flash chip, after removing it and making copies. So the tech could then, in court, point to a physical item, and swear, “Yeah, that's the chip I removed from the iPhone.”.
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Re: Legal question here
The Toshiba THGBX2G7B2JLA01 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND flash is not destroyed by any of the several methods proposed so far.
Testimony from the techs who performed the procedure would, of course, be required to authenticate the flash chip.
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Re: Legal question here
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Re: Legal question here
In the NY case, the perpetrator plead guilty and the authorities claim they are looking for other co-conspirators or something. Again, I think that information would be available from service providers and there is no real need to get into the phone, save a me too precedent chasing manipulation.
BTW, IANAL, nor do I play one on TV.
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Re: Re: Legal question here
At that point, federal agents may have had similar beliefs about “the actual need for a chain of evidence.” That might have led them to discount the possibility that methods or capabilities might be disclosed in a future court case. There would still be opsec issues, as it's rather likely that not all members of the joint federal-state-local task force investigating the incident would be cleared to know all secrets.
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You should climb off your agenda and take another look at what is going on here. From the FBI's point of view, there is a precedent to set here, nothing else. Or are you the FBI with your head stuck squarely in the sand?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Legal question here
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J. Heuer, Jr.
Chapter 8: Analysis of Competing Hypotheses
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The federal warrant to search the black Lexus, Cal lic.# 5KGD203, was issued at 2:27a.m. on Thu., Dec. 3rd. The government has also stated that the iPhone 5c was seized from the Lexus on the 3rd.
Also on Thu., Dec. 3, FBI took the lead in the investigation. Additionally, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee was briefed.
On Fri., Dec. 4, FBI announced at news conferences in San Bernardino and Washington, that it was treating the case as an “act of terrorism”.
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Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J. Heuer, Jr.
Chapter 10: Biases in Evaluation of Evidence
(Footnote omitted.)
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Re: Legal question here
Well, in this particular case that's a nonissue. It's very clear that the feds don't actually think the phone contains anything that would be useful in court anyway. Further, their interest is not actually in the contents of the phone per se, but in gaining the legal precedent.
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Re: Re: Legal question here
Doesn't the federal government have a long-standing record of protecting (or attempting to protect) the secrecy of sources, methods, and capabilities?
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Re: Re: Re: Legal question here
Parallel reconstruction of what? There is no court case that such reconstruction would be used in.
As to their record of protecting methods, etc., yes of course. But what does that have to do with their interest in compelling Apple?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Legal question here
Further, that would not be the only application for “parallel reconstruction”.
Suppose that the San Bernardino iPhone 5c was accessed early in the investigation by means of ‘national technical capabilities’. It seems a fair possibility that knowledge of that access may have leaked to task force members who had no need to know about the existence of that national technical capability.
So, “parallel reconstruction” would explain the fact of access for those people who weren't read into the access capability that was actually used during the pressure of the investigation.
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More generally though - they could take a forensic copy of both the flash and the onboard storage, and use that to prove a chain of evidence (in that the storage is not altered, and the intel came from that storage)
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Re: Legal question here
It's the files in hard memory chip that they're trying to decrypt and this chip won't be removed from the phone or altered in any way when they do get in. They'll pull a copy to use as evidence leaving this separate chip unaltered.
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Are they asking Apple to circumvent copy protection?
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Fact #2, Spoof the auto update site, and the phone will update what ever script the spoofer wants. ( it has been done before).
Fact #3, Apple is the easiest way to access the data on that phone.
Fact #5 Anonymous stated that they wanted to assist in the capture of terrorists, The FBI should reach out to them.
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Re:
3: Probably, but "easiest" does not mean "easy". If the FBI can do this stuff with the hardware without bothering Apple, they should.
It might be easiest for the local prosecutor to demand you jump start his car rather than calling a repair shop, but that doesn't mean he has the right to demand that from you. Even if it means a criminal goes free because he's late to court.
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Perception is Reality
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Re:
A testing socket can be hooked up instead of the current NAND chip. This socket can have ignore the erase command.
So: 4-digit PIN has 5040 permutations.
This means they'll have to reset the NAND (or ignore the erase) a maximum of 504 times.
Let's say entering 10 PINs takes 5 seconds. Let's say restoring the NAND takes 20 seconds.
This means that it will take a maximum of 12600 seconds to try every permutation.
To put that in perspective, that's 210 minutes, or 3.5 hours. That's shorter than the time it will take to get all the equipment into the same room, and WAY shorter than the time between March 1 (when Comey was challenged on this solution, to which he pled ignorance) and today -- just in case it was really a situation where nobody had thought to do it that way.
It's no longer about the phone's contents at all. The FBI has been spoonfed an alternate method of getting those. This is purely about setting precedent compelling a private corporation to modify its software to defeat security protections.
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Re: Re:
Modifying the software is a minor part of what they want, the real desire is forcing the company to sign and distribute the modified software. That way they become able to bypass code signing protections every time they can get a warrant, and if they can get a company to target a machine via its normal code distribution channels, they do not have to have possession of the machine, but can get software installed to aid their investigation prior to an arrest.
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Re: Re:
Not a big difference in orders of magnitude--roughly double--so I don't think it changes the core argument here, but it's important to have the numbers right.
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The tail trying to wag the dog
A few good people s/b retained to establish a professional investigative agency that does not fear due process and citizens who insist on respect for the Bill Of Righrs, and harbor no ambitions to bend/make laws to entrap mentally challenged folks in order to pad their stats, not to mention outright murder as standard procedure ala Ruby Ridge, Waco (thanks Janet), etc.
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The victims, and the family of the victims should be disgusted....
They should be disgusted that they are used and that the attack is by extension of those who they should trust the most, still happening on some ways.
They are being manipulated and lied to by those who should be giving some form of closure.
I seriously doubt that the FBI exspects to find anything of even slight value on that phone and as time passes, they are revealed to be even bigger liars to say that they even needed this in the first place.
Then they drag the victims and families out in the media to be a head of their lying scheme, by blackmailing them with "promises" of finding evidence that the sick people who did this are part of some evil conspieracy and thus that there is a chance that this is not just the meaningless actions of two sick minds, but that the death and destruction caused will untimately lead to a greater good.
How sick and twisted the minds, of those who came up with this scheme, must be.
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....
00:51:42 James B. Comey Jr.: I have no idea.
. . . .
00:53:18 James B. Comey Jr.: Firstly, I'm the director of the FBI. If I could answer that question, there'd be something dysfunctional in my leadership.
. . . .
0:54:07 James B. Comey Jr.: I -- I did not ask the questions you're asking me here today, and I'm not sure I fully even understand the questions. I have reasonable confidence --.."
I'm not sure the US govt could pay me enough to get me to make such a complete idiot of myself in front of Congress and broadcast to the planet. Surreal. Does not Congress have the power to compel appearances by just about anyone they want? I would have insisted that Comey name names of the tech command hierarchy and compel each one to appear until one of them could answer the question: "If you could make one copy could you make many other copies? Yes or No". But of course it was all about plausible deniability '"Oh I must have misunderstood" "Oh I thought you were asking about.." "Oh I mis-spoke, that was nothing to do with me, these are not my pants, that is not my purse, and the other guy did it".
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So, which is it?
I was in the Military 30 some years ago, this was not uncommon between the enlisted and and commissioned ranks.
Officers made the Orders, and sometimes, even though not illegal, were still impossible to carry out.
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Lies, Damn Lies and FBI
The paragraph below was excerpted from NY Times:
U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement
By RON NIXONJULY 3, 2013
Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?_r=0
There is also the "Bank Secrecy Act" where those same authoritarians force your bank to act as a snitch and report any transactions over $10,000.00.
https://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/bsa/
The US government excels at using the specious claim of preventing future acts of domestic terrorism from occurring as the justification for it's unconstitutional actions (they create the terrorists and then steal our liberties to provide for our "safety").
Ending/weakening encryption is not the panacea the US government proclaims it would be: If we awoke one morning and found ourselves living within the realm of unicorns where the US government had the magic power to decrypt all data thus empowering Uncle Sam to peer into the nooks and crannies of every persons and businesses digital life there would still be acts of terrorism committed.
This is the tell of the tale: US government surveillance has nothing to do with preventing terrorism and everything to do with totalitarianism (protecting the status quo from citizens who are becoming increasingly tired of being exploited every day of their lives).
PS James Comey did not ascend to the lofty perch of FBI Director because he was the most capable person rather he is another in long line of pliably supine political appointees who clicks his/her heels, salutes smartly and then marches off unquestioningly to the beat of his masters drum.
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Truth was there all along...
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More-or-less 'round about the time the European RoHS directive began make Pb-free a thing, I learned just enough about flux chemistry to begin to understand how much I didn't know about it.
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