Snowden: FBI's claim it can't unlock the San Bernardino iPhone is 'bullshit'
Snowden: FBI's claim it can't unlock the San Bernardino
iPhone is 'bullshit'
NSA whistleblower rubbishes claims that only Apple can
unlock killer’s iPhone 5C, indicating FBI has the means itself
The FBI can unlock the San Bernardino iPhone, says Edward
Snowden
By Samuel Gibbs
Wednesday 9 March 2016 06.30 EST Last modified on
Wednesday 9 March 2016 18.22 EST
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower whose NSA revelations
sparked a debate on mass surveillance, has waded into the arguments over the
FBI’s attempt to force Apple to help it unlock the iPhone 5C of one of the San
Bernardino shooters.
The FBI says that only Apple can deactivate certain
passcode protections on the iPhone, which will allow law enforcement to guess
the passcode by using brute-force.
Talking via video link from Moscow to the Common Cause
Blueprint for a Great Democracy conference, Snowden said: “The FBI says Apple
has the ‘exclusive technical means’ to unlock the phone. Respectfully, that’s
bullshit.”
Snowden then went on to tweet his support for an American
Civil Liberties Union report saying that the FBI’s claims in the case are
fraudulent.
Meanwhile, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in a
discussion on Reddit: “I think there needs to be a discussion about when the
government should be able to gather information. What if we had never had
wiretapping? Also the government needs to talk openly about safeguards.”
Gates refused to be drawn on one side or the other of the
debate, despite seemingly supporting the FBI and then backtracking. Microsoft
later filed an amicus brief backing Apple against the FBI.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also spoke out against the
FBI on the Conan O’Brien show on Monday, saying: “I side with Apple on this
one. [The FBI] picked the lamest case you ever could.”
Wozniak added: “Verizon turned over all the phone records
and SMS messages. So they want to take this other phone that the two didn’t
destroy, which was a work phone. It’s so lame and worthless to expect there’s
something on it and to get Apple to expose it.”
Apple’s clash with the FBI comes to a head in California
this month when the two will meet in federal court to debate whether the
smartphone manufacturer should be required to weaken security settings on the
iPhone of the shooter.
The government’s case was dealt a potential setback when
Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled against the government on 29 February in
a different phone-unlocking case, which the government is currently appealing.
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