There was only one way for the court battle between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Apple Inc. over access to the data on a killer’s phone could end well for everyday Americans. Luckily, the FBI achieved it.
With the help of outside hackers, whose identity remains a mystery, the FBI successfully circumvented Apple’s much-touted security. In the process, the agency did exactly what defenders of encryption and digital privacy have advocated for some time. It is called “lawful hacking,” which is another way to describe law enforcement exploiting weaknesses in a security process.
Advocates say lawful hacking is an alternative to, and preferable to, creating a new “backdoor” into the system. An author of a recent paper on the subject, Columbia University professor and cybersecurity expert Steven Bellovin, says “I don’t have any problem with what the FBI did. The whole premise of lawful hacking is there are vulnerabilities.”
Here is why that is a good thing: It makes software more secure. Bugs are often discovered by “white hat” hackers who share them with the software’s creator so they can be patched, typically before the flaw is even disclosed. This isn’t a purely benevolent system; it works because these hackers, or their employers at universities or cybersecurity companies, want the money from bug “bounties,” or the publicity that comes with finding an exploit, and because everyone, including hackers, is vulnerable to undisclosed exploits. For the full article click here
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