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Apple Iphone Attack

Decent Essays

Recently, the FBI has asked Apple to create a backdoor into IPhones, allowing the government and anyone with access, to bypass security and access the data in an IPhone. The main reason that this has become such a popular issue is because of the aftermath of the San Bernardino attack. One of the attackers, Syed Farook, had an IPhone that is believed to have been used to communicate with other ISIS members. The FBI has been unable to open the phone, and is now asking Apple for a backdoor into the phone, which Apple promptly declined. If a backdoor is generated for all IPhones, anyone with the “key” to unlock the backdoor will have access to the entire world’s supply of data on IPhones, ranging from a middle schooler’s IPhone to the CEO of a …show more content…

Creating a backdoor would mean that hackers would require less effort to get into people’s phones, and would also allow more amateur hackers to get into people's phones. IPhones are encrypted with a single number, which is the product of two prime numbers. This makes the number extremly hard to find, taking supercomputers with extremely elite algorithms years to guess just one. However, there is a shortcut: using two “keys”, a private key and a public key. The public has access to the public key, and Apple (theoretically) has access to the private key. By using these keys in conjunction, the time required to guess the number decreases from years to days. By creating a backdoor, the private key will become available to anyone who needs it; law enforcement, the government, and hackers. This would allow elite hackers to decrease the time needed to access the phones by a huge amount, and would also allow amateur hackers to get into the game and try for …show more content…

The future of personal security and encryption lies at stake in this fight, and both sides are unwilling to back down. If Apple wins, then IPhones stay secure, but the IPhones from many criminals will remain locked. If the government wins, they will have access to all the IPhones in the country, but will also be able to use the backdoor in criminal and counterterrorist cases. In this case, Apple winning has a better outcome than the FBI winning, because Apple winning is a win for personal and national

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