Apple challenges 'chilling' demand to decrypt San Bernadino shooter's iPhone

Apple is taking a stance that any encryption backdoor is bad - which in and of itself is a true statement however Apple is also creating a bit of FUD on the issue.

In this case the FBI is asking that the data from a single phone be decrypted, and do to the nature of how IOS encrypts data on an iPhone 5c it requires bypassing the protections against brute force attacks - essentially after x number of attempts the IOS increases the interval between allowed attempts and after some number of attempts the phone erases the data in an unrecoverable fashion.

The FBI has asked Apple to create a custom version of the IOS that would allow machine-to-machine entry of passcodes, taking a brute force approach to cracking the encryption. Apple says they shouldn't do that because the code could be used on other phones, ya-da-ya-da... well as several folks in the industry have proposed, Apple could do this entirely in-house, with appropriate FBI presence for chain of custody, crack the data and hand the data over, then erase the custom IOS from the phone - so this 'dangerous' software never leaves Apples hands.

That reasonable approach would likely receive a favorable reception from the courts, particularly since it protects Apple's intellectual property while meeting the court's requirement. It's a bogus argument to say then 'everyone' will make those requests - if there is valid reason, and a court order, the phone has to physically be brought to Apple - so millions of phones are not 'at risk'

If Apply can't trust the handful of engineers this would require, or protect source code, we have bigger problems (of course always possible an Apple engineer could leave a phone with this hacked IOS in a bar....nah...no one would leave a prototype in a bar)