I am firmly in the pro Apple camp when it comes to their resistance to unlocking an encryption iPhone because I don't think the government should be able to force the company to modify their software to access a phone. On the other hand, I have absolutely no problem with the government hacking a phone or reverse engineering the Apple software.
It is very likely that all of the fuss and arguments are really a big smokescreen to create a legal framework for something the government can already do.
A recent article (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-threatens-to-demand-apple-s-secret-source-code-214832611.html) suggests that the government may demand Apple' source code if Apple won't decrypt phones at will. This proposed action suggests three things. First, how secure is Apple's source code anyway? Do we really think that agencies of the US government cannot breach Apple's security and get their hands on the source code? Second, if the government already had the code, it would be easy enough to modify the software themselves; the NSA has excelent software engineers. Third, I suggest that the NSA already has the capability but cannot make that information public. This means that the FBI suit merely seeks to make public something that a shadow government agency already can do.
Perhaps having the legal precedent merely makes it less likely that a software company develop new code restricting government access in the future. Also, from the FBI's standpoint a court order legalizing the activity opens the way towards unlocking any smartphone owned by any alleged criminal.
It is best to assume that our iPhones are already unsafe and unlockable by the government. Aside from the legal precedent, this battle likely means far less than most of us thought.
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