How to balance security, privacy

Newsday, editorial: “The showdown between Apple and the government over the tech giant’s defiance of a court order that it help the FBI unlock a terrorist’s cellphone underscores one of the great debates of our digital era: the balance between national security and individual privacy. ... A carefully monitored, constantly reevaluated program can help the government fulfill its primary responsibility: keeping its people safe.”

Will Strafach, BRG: “By doing this, Apple will show that breaking into an iPhone is ‘possible,’ and allow the FBI to use this case in the future as leverage. ... It paves the way for more unreasonable and technically difficult requests to be made. In those scenarios ... the company will have to show definitively why it is different from the ‘last time’ it assisted.”

Alison Frankel, Reuters: “The All Writs Act (of 1789) has been a powerful tool for prosecutors since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. New York Telephone (that it) extends, under certain conditions, to private companies in a position to assist ‘the proper administration of justice.’ ... In a ruling last fall, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein said there were important differences between Apple and the telephone company in the 1977 (case). For one thing, Apple is not a public utility. Nor does it own the equipment at issue. (Also) Congress has conspicuously declined to act on Justice Department requests for legislation to compel cellphone companies to decrypt users’ passcodes. ... Judge Orenstein seems to have emboldened Apple to begin what CEO Tim Cook called a ‘public discussion’ of cellphone encryption and the data security threat from the government’s demand in the Farook case. Whatever happens next ... the public will know about it. We can thank Judge Orenstein for that.”

Bryan Clark, The Next Web: “Much like it has proven time and time again, the government is clueless about cyber security, and encryption in particular. You can’t weaken one phone. The very design of this exploit is software-based, meaning Apple isn’t hacking a single phone, it’s creating software that can then be used to access any other iPhone. Should this exploit ever find its way into the wild, or even into the unchecked hands of law enforcement, it’ll prove to be a security crisis even Orwell’s 1984 couldn’t have predicted.”