Linked List: March 17, 2016

Thursday, 17 March 2016

NYT: ‘Apple Encryption Engineers, if Ordered to Unlock iPhone, Might Resist’ ★

John Markoff, Katie Benner, and Brian X. Chen, reporting for the NYT:

Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.

Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the development of mobile products and security, as well as former security engineers and executives.

Another topic that Glenn Fleishman and I discussed on the just-released new episode of The Talk Show. We came to the same conclusion: many, if not most, security engineers at Apple would quit rather than comply with this order — and they’d have no difficulty finding jobs elsewhere in the Valley in today’s market.

The Talk Show: ‘With Apologies to Hamilton’ ★

Special guest Glenn Fleishman returns to the show to join me for an in-depth discussion of Apple’s legal fight with the DOJ and FBI over the iPhone and encryption, speculation on next week’s Apple event, and more.

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‘It Can Happen Here’ ★

Theodore Gray:

Fear is the tool of choice for bringing a free people under the yoke. Fear is the great equalizer between the unlimited power of the people to act in their own interest, and the pitiful weakness of a would-be despot.

Do not give these people the tools that only fear can buy them.

Inside Apple CEO Tim Cook’s Fight With the FBI ★

Lev Grossman, in a cover story for Time:

Inside Apple this idea is nicknamed, not affectionately, GovtOS. “We had long discussions about that internally, when they asked us,” Cook says. “Lots of people were involved. It wasn’t just me sitting in a room somewhere deciding that way, it was a labored decision. We thought about all the things you would think we would think about.” The decision, when it came, was no.

Cook actually thought that might be the end of it. It wasn’t: on Feb. 16 the FBI both escalated and went public, obtaining a court order from a federal judge that required Apple to create GovtOS under something called the All Writs Act. Cook took deep, Alabaman umbrage at the manner in which he learned about the court order, which was in the press: “If I’m working with you for several months on things, if I have a relationship with you, and I decide one day I’m going to sue you, I’m a country boy at the end of the day: I’m going to pick up the phone and tell you I’m going to sue you.”

‘The Apple Fight Is About All of Us’ ★

Joint statement from the EFF, ACLU, and Access Now:

We call on the Obama Administration to heed the advice of neutral security experts, engineers, and even his own advisors who have affirmed the dangers inherent in the order issued to Apple. We urge them to reject the calls of those who seek to undermine our security, whether through backdoors into our software, master keys to unlock our digital data, or pressure on companies to downgrade our security.

Over 100,000 people have called for President Obama to stand up for security in our devices through savecrypto.org. It’s time for the President to be accountable to them, and to all of us.

One of the things Glenn Fleishman and I talk about on this week’s episode of my podcast is that there are no crypto or security experts on the DOJ’s side in the matter. None. I’m not saying there’s no one on the DOJ’s side — only that none of them are crypto or security experts.

Recode: Apple to Build Out Own Cloud Infrastructure ★

Mark Bergen, reporting for Recode on reports that Apple is shifting some of its cloud infrastructure from AWS to Google:

Then there’s Apple’s next step. Morgan Stanley, in a note last month, laid out the tea leaves: Apple has announced three data centers opening soon and spent an estimated $1 billion last year on AWS. It’s a logical move for Apple if it wants more independence from its tech rivals. And it’s one Apple should make to store the growing media libraries from its mobile, TV and TBD products.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Apple already has a team working on this; it’s known internally as “McQueen,” as in Steve. It’s unclear if that project will materialize or when. But a source tells Re/code that the codename refers to Apple’s intent, sometime in the next few years, to break its reliance on all three outside cloud providers in favor of its own soup-to-nuts infrastructure.

This is more in line with Tim Cook’s longtime refrain, “We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make.”

Arizona Diamondbacks Unveil Seven New Uniforms for 2016 ★

This is ridiculous. One uniform for home games, one for the road, and one cap — that’s all any team needs.