{"id":18106,"date":"2016-02-22T16:46:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T21:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18106"},"modified":"2016-02-22T16:46:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T21:46:55","slug":"upgrade-your-iphone-passcode-to-defeat-the-fbis-backdoor-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18106","title":{"rendered":"Upgrade Your iPhone Passcode to Defeat the FBI’s Backdoor Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UPGRADE YOUR IPHONE PASSCODE TO DEFEAT THE FBI\u2019S BACKDOOR STRATEGY<\/a><\/h3>\n
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YESTERDAY, APPLE CEO TIM COOK\u00a0published an\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0opposing\u00a0a court order to build the FBI a \u201cbackdoor\u201d for the iPhone.<\/div>\n
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Cook\u00a0wrote\u00a0that the backdoor, which removes limitations on how often an attacker can incorrectly guess an iPhone passcode, would set a dangerous precedent and \u201cwould have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone\u2019s physical possession,\u201d even though in this instance, the FBI is seeking to unlock a single iPhone belonging to one of the\u00a0killers\u00a0in a 14-victim mass shooting spree in San Bernardino, California, in December.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that ordering Apple to develop\u00a0the backdoor\u00a0will fundamentally undermine\u00a0iPhone security, as\u00a0Cook and other digital security\u00a0advocates\u00a0have argued<\/a>. But it\u2019s possible for individual iPhone users to protect themselves from government snooping by setting\u00a0strong passcodes on their phones \u2014 passcodes the FBI would not be able to unlock even if it gets its\u00a0iPhone backdoor.<\/p>\n

The technical details of how the iPhone encrypts data, and how the FBI might circumvent this protection, are complex and convoluted, and are being thoroughly explored elsewhere on the internet. What I\u2019m going to focus on here is how ordinary iPhone users can protect themselves.<\/p>\n

The short version: If you\u2019re worried about governments trying to access your phone, set your iPhone up with\u00a0a random, 11-digit numeric passcode. What follows is an explanation of\u00a0why that will protect you and how to actually do it.<\/p>\n

If it sounds outlandish to worry\u00a0about government agents\u00a0trying to crack into your phone,\u00a0consider that\u00a0when you travel internationally, agents at the\u00a0airport or other border crossings\u00a0can seize, search, and temporarily retain your digital devices \u2014\u00a0even without any grounds for suspicion<\/a>. And while a local police officer can\u2019t search your iPhone without a warrant, cops have used their own digital devices to get search warrants within 15 minutes, as\u00a0a\u00a0Supreme Court opinion recently\u00a0noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPGRADE YOUR IPHONE PASSCODE TO DEFEAT THE FBI\u2019S BACKDOOR STRATEGY YESTERDAY, APPLE CEO TIM COOK\u00a0published an\u00a0open letter\u00a0opposing\u00a0a court order to build the FBI a \u201cbackdoor\u201d for the iPhone. Cook\u00a0wrote\u00a0that the backdoor, which removes limitations on how often an attacker can incorrectly guess an iPhone passcode, would set a dangerous precedent and \u201cwould have the potential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29,6103,301,10461,12546,12547,712,5567,12494,5264],"class_list":["post-18106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-apple","tag-backdoor","tag-fbi","tag-iphone","tag-micah-lee","tag-san-bernardino","tag-security","tag-the-intercept","tag-tim-cook","tag-us-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18107,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18106\/revisions\/18107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}