John McAfee Offers To Hack Terrorist's iPhone For FBI
John McAfee, inventor of one of the most widely used computer anti-virus programs in the U.S., offered in a Business Insider piece published Thursday to help the FBI hack into the encrypted iPhone of one of the suspects in December's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday turned down a request from the FBI to develop a "back door" for the phone -- a customized version of iOS software that would let authorities bypass the device's security and access data belonging to one of the two attackers in the shooting that left 14 people dead.
McAfee offered the service of his misfit hackers to defuse the standoff between Apple and the FBI.
"So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks," McAfee wrote. "If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America."
He said this solution would solve the FBI's immediate problem with the cell phone and eliminate the concerns of privacy critics who fear the back door technology could be misused.
At points, his message seemed to taunt the Feds. McAfee, who's running for president as a Libertarian , said the FBI hit this impasse because it only hires straight-laced computer experts who are less talented than his "prodigies."
"And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won't work for less than a half-million dollars a year," he wrote. "But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It's why we are decades behind in the cyber race."
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"And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won't work for less than a half-million dollars a year," he wrote. "But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It's why we are decades behind in the cyber race."
Bingo.
There are so many things that bother me about this issue.
The most bothersome is that the government wants to own a backdoor to this technology. That gives them custody of the technology, which is a very sensitive secret.
Their track record on maintaining secrets is godawful.
The only secrets they are interested in keeping are those regarding how they knew where to be and at what time to be there, in order to catch someone doing something wrong. It's called parallel construction, and it's the biggest threat to your freedom in this country today. What the FBI is asking for is literally a universal key to obtain information without a warrant - to be used for framing purposes. They've got many versions on this key already, from many entities that you trust to not flush your privacy down the toilet, but Apple has not relented.
"criminals are increasingly aware of the protection offered by their devices. ...a prisoner in a city jail was recently recorded saying in a phone call that iPhone encryption was "another gift from God.""
People will be able to hide the "paper trail" of their criminal activity behind their phones , in the name of "privacy". Just as there would be an unintended consequence of unlocking phones of terrorists, there is an unintended consequence in not doing it.
What is the consequence of the FBI making their request public, as opposed to doing a secret warrant, which they have done hundreds of times with Apple, with Apple complying each time?
What is the consequence of your PayPal account being hacked into on your iPhone, because the Albanians hacked into the FBI computer to steal the workaround?
What is the consequence of your medical records being hacked because of the utterly inept security protection that the government has displayed time and time again.
I can ask this question a hundred different ways, but the main thrust is that the FBI was unable to get into the terrorist's iPhone, and rather than ask the same way they've asked time and time again, they decided they wanted control.
Are you no longer interested in the freedoms that this country was built on?
I am not as paranoid as other people are. It's pretty much that simple to me.
Are you ok with catching bad guys by the use of illegal and warrant-less wiretapping? Isn't that a tactic used by totalitarian regimes?
This is definitely a sticky situation. The government is going to have to figure out another way to catch or trap these guys. This is too slippery a slope - it's all about setting a precedence and once that happens we're all doomed......DOOMED I SAY.......mmmmmmwwwwahahahahahahaha
As I hinted when I posted the article a day or so ago. The government wants their back door. Not for someone to let them in just once. They won't take the offer from him or anyone else.