DoJ drags Apple to court for not unlocking iOS 7 iPhone 5s

Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) is again under the spotlight of the federal government for not allowing them to unlock iPhone 5s of a felon. The Department of Justice has now dragged the American technology giant into the court room for not handing the encryption keys to the iOS device.

As per the initial reports, the high state-level security in the iOS has landed the Federals into a position where they can no longer access the smartphone and get the details stored on it in the form of evidence. On reaching Apple to unlock the device, the company said that they don’t have a backdoor in the iOS to open the device, and would uselessly consume the resources without any possible outcome.

On being asked why there is no way by which Apple can unlock the devices, the Cupertino giant replied that having a backdoor for the good guys can also be exploited by the bad guys. Any loopholes expose the iOS to several vulnerabilities and can ruin the status Apple has maintained in the industry.

However, the court believes that the company has a way to unlock the iPhone 5s running on the iOS 7. In the past also, the company has provided details on the Federal requests, and from that the DoJ is trying to box in the company by stating that a software is a sole property of the business and is only given to users for an usage. Every piece of software isn’t a property of the customers but the company releasing it. The license agreement between the user and group is what the DoJ using to force Apple to unlock the phone manufactured by the enterprise.

It’s the matter of the fact that Apple in the license agreement mentions “licensed, not sold” and “a limited non-exclusive license to use the iOS Software.” The Cupertino giant cannot now disown the agreements and move away without unlocking the smartphone.

As per the jury, the Federals are having issues in decrypting the device that holds useful information about the criminal. Talking about that, the security in the iOS 8 is so mature that it is not possible to break it without damaging the information on the device. Apple can certainly reset the device; however, that would end up losing all of the information residing on the smartphone.

It now raises a concern over the security of the smartphones, and the criminals using them. Federals may not get enough evidence to prove the person guilty, however, leaving a backdoor can increase the risk of millions of devices falling into the hands of wrong people, underground markets and what not. Privacy would indeed go away with it.

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  • The Feds should not be granted any access to encrypted information. The department of “justice” likes to throw the Felony word around a lot to scare people into thinking of jail time. They are nothing but a big cartel of thugs the likes this Earth has not seen before. There is no justice anywhere in their system. Any backdoor will not be kept just with this one case. It will be shared everywhere until indeed the wrong guys get it as the Federal government is so inept they can’t even hold a virus with high mortality rate correctly. The needs of the privacy for the general public whom 99.999999% are law abiding FAR outweighs the needs in this one case.