Good day all, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. We haven’t talked much about the FBI’s trying to force Apple to break the encryption protocols on the San Bernardino terrorists company issued Iphone.
The last posting was done by the Angry Webmaster back in February. He wrote about Apple’s response to the FBI’s demands for a backdoor into the Iphones, and how this all came about due to the FBI’s sheer incompetence in securing the phone and data. The case is moving through the courts and Apple has basically been showing that the FBI and the DOJ are at best, disingenuous in their court filings, and at worst, outright lying to the court. I will leave that part up to the legal system since I’m not qualified to comment on it.
Instead, I’m going to comment on another issue that is just now starting to burble up. What if the FBI and the Department of Justice win the case and an order is issued to Apple to write the code needed to break the encryption on this and other Iphones, and the actual programmers outright refuse? In the worst case, Apple loses, and Tim Cooke instructs the programmers to start working, and instead, the programmers resign en mass. What happens next? The New York Times has started wondering too.
If the F.B.I. wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers.
Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.
The potential resistance adds a wrinkle to a very public fight between Apple, the world’s most valuable company, and the authorities over access to an iPhone used by one of the attackers in the December mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif.
As I’ve mentioned, I am not a legal scholar. I have heard others ask this very question, although not to a lawyer or to the DOJ. If they win the case, how will they get the order enforced if the people who have to do the work, refuse? Are they going to throw several hundred programmers in jail?
“Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple and its engineers,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in the company’s final brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of California.
Basically that is what it would be. Conscripting Apples Iphone development team into essentially building a way for the FBI, as well as other agencies and police departments to hack into pretty much everyone’s Iphone. Herding cats on methamphetamine would be far simpler.
“It’s an independent culture and a rebellious one,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist who was once an engineering manager at Apple. “If the government tries to compel testimony or action from these engineers, good luck with that.”
What would be the results if these programmers and developers refused? They could resign, and then would no longer have access to the source code or the development tools they would need to carry out the order. Losing their jobs is not something these people would worry about either.
The fear of losing a paycheck may not have much of an impact on security engineers whose skills are in high demand. Indeed, hiring them could be a badge of honor among other tech companies that share Apple’s skepticism of the government’s intentions.
“If someone attempts to force them to work on something that’s outside their personal values, they can expect to find a position that’s a better fit somewhere else,” said Window Snyder, the chief security officer at the start-up Fastly and a former senior product manager in Apple’s security and privacy division.
From what I’ve been reading, I suspect the FBI and DOJ lawyers handling the case have not thought beyond getting their court order, and that is what will bite them in the posterior.
An employee rebellion could throw the F.B.I’s legal fight with Apple into uncharted territory.
“If — and this is a big if — every engineer at Apple who could write the code quit and, also a big if, Apple could demonstrate that this happened to the court’s satisfaction, then Apple could not comply and would not have to,” said Joseph DeMarco, a former federal prosecutor. “It would be like asking my lawn guy to write the code.”
Of course, the FBI and the DOJ might not care that Apple is unable to comply since all their people have left or refused. Then they will as the judge to fine Apple. They have done this in the past, and it hasn’t worked out for them either. I give you, Lavabit.
The government has cracked down on tech companies in the past. A judge imposed a $10,000-a-day penalty on the email service Lavabit when it did not give its digital encryption keys to investigators pursuing information on Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who leaked documents about government surveillance.
And how did Lavabit respond?
The small company’s response could be indicative of how individual Apple employees reacted to a court order. When Lavabit was held in contempt, its owner shut down the company rather than comply.
That didn’t stop the FBI. They still demanded the keys. The owner finally provided them, just not in the way the FBI expected. He printed out the keys and small type and physically delivered it to the FBI. From what I’ve been able to determine, the FBI was not amused and hit the founder with another contempt charge.
Apple has significantly greater resources to fight the FBI than Lavabit did, and honestly, this is probably going to explode in their faces. I believe the Angry Webmaster commented on one possible result. Thousands of very angry programmers slamming into the Federal Governments computer systems with the goal of not stealing data, but outright destroying it and systems. This may also spill over into the private sector as identified DOJ lawyers and FBI agents personal information, financial data and other things are erased.
While I do not endorse law breaking, the way things are right now, the FBI’s actions, if they win this case, could lead to a cyberwar that makes what’s happening between the United States and foreign governments look like a minor issue with script kiddies. I think it’s time for Congress to step in and basically reign in the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation before things really spiral out of control.
Thank you for your time.
~The Angry Systems Administrator~
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