Apple Fires a Warning Shot in the Latest Battle of the Crypto War
The past few years have been vicious in the debate between private companies and the US government when it comes to encryption. There has always been a heated relationship, but mounting public pressure (both by a public more informed of tactics of surveillance and how widespread they really are) has made the issue more of a battle for marketshare. Apple has drawn a line in the sand this week, refusing an FBI demand to create a special access method for them to hack into the cellphone of one of the San Bernadino shooters.
To be clear, this is a fairly specific request being made that does not jeopardize the encryption of the device itself or create a backdoor. The request is to disable a feature that wipes the phone memory after 10 incorrect password guesses, and to make it easier to enter passcode guesses via a separate device rather than having to do so manually via the lock-screen. This, and removal of a five-second time limit between guesses make it clear that the request is more to make it easier to brute force the password, and not to put a true backdoor in which would weaken security overall. Still, this would be a slippery slope, and Apple is right to not give an inch where a mile is so easily taken..
Google was a bit behind, but chimed in yesterday, and the expectation is that a few other major players including Facebook and Microsoft, will not be far behind with official statements in defense of physical security for their customers. It’s a great move, and will probably serve them well financially too. While it’s a controversial case, it makes sense that attention is given to what could be viewed as a more benign and even helpful case of finding information from a clear bad-guy that can help determine reasoning. This makes it easier to make the case in the future that more morally ambiguous cases should definitely not be considered for potential hacking collusion.
The FCC has moved closer to letting Americans dump their crappy cable boxes
Adam Epstein, Quartz
Just this week I was complaining about the inanities of companies claiming ownership over hardware that you pay for, treating you as a renter and not an owner. If my phone or other device (PlayStation 4 in this particular iteration of my rant) comes preinstalled with an app, it should be within my rights to remove that app without having to unduly expend effort like jailbreaking or rooting. Thankfully, it looks like the FCC generally agrees, by several times declaring it legal to jailbreak cellphones, and now ruling 3-2 that consumers should be allowed to purchase third party cable boxes, as opposed to being forced to rent them from their cable providers. The hope here is that added competition will drive down prices and drive up reliability and features. I’m all for a better piece of hardware via a more open market.
The President’s NSA Advisory Board Finally Gets a Tech Expert
Kim Zetter, Wired
Columbia University computer scientist Steve Bellovin made it clear years ago that the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board should have a technologist on board – someone who understand the capabilities of technology being debated upon for recommendations to the NSA. The board has listened, and though it’s temporary for now, with his involvement being re-evaluated later this year, Bellovin has been added to a board made up mainly of lawyers to provided a much needed technical analyst on a board that is supposed to make recommendations on the very same types of technology that he routinely discusses. Seems like it should be a no-brainer, but better late then never, I guess.
Reading stories can make robots more sympathetic to humanity, and less likely to kill us
Ashley Rodriguez, Quartz
You use stories to teach morals to your children, why not do the same for robots? That’s the idea behind a recent paper from Mark O. Riedl and Brent Harrison at the School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology. The idea is to give AI a set of guidelines and templates for reasoning, allowing them to make decisions that aren’t necessarily pre-programmed about how to respond in situations that may require advanced moral reasoning. Let’s just hope they figure out who the protagonists are and emulate them, as opposed to the evil witches, stepmothers, ghouls, and ghosts that make up the antagonists of many children’s stories.
The Malware Museum
Jason Scott, The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has much more going for it than the Wayback Machine which allows users to view snapshots of millions of websites throughout time. The Archive is also host to specific collections of computer history, and one of the newest collections is emulations of old computer viruses that have been neutered of their destructive powers. Maybe they’d be less annoying today if they were as whimsical as some of these from the late 80’s and early 90’s pre-internet were.
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