Trump Attacks Apple, Backs Barr’s Efforts to Kill Effective Security

Another developments in the US government vs Apple affair. Impeached president, Donald Trump, is demanding backdoor access.

Yesterday, we touched on the US governments front against Apple in the war on encryption and effective security. In that story, the government accused Apple of holding back information in an investigation into the the Pensacola shooter. They said that information about the shooter’s second iPhone was inaccessible because Apple didn’t hand decryption keys over. Of course, the truth came out and the reality is that the government simply forgot to ask for them. Apple, for its part, contends that everything the government asked for was handed over.

Of course, the government helmed by big government Republican’s argued that the government should have backdoor access and that this case highlights that. This in spite of the fact that lack of backdoor access had nothing to do with the delay. As we pointed out at the time, it’s possible that the government could play it smart, wait a while for the reports to die down so that facts start slipping out of sight, then push the narrative again hoping people forget the real reason for the investigation delay. Of course, the impeached president isn’t really smart and tends to act on impulse. So, he helped Attorney General Barr in his attack on encryption. From CNET:

President Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday on a reignited battle over encryption, calling out Apple for refusing to create backdoors that would help law enforcement agencies unlock iPhones.

Just a day after the Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr criticized the tech giant for a lack of “substantive help” in its investigation of a deadly shooting at a Florida Naval base, the president is now adding to the pressure on Apple.

In a tweet Tuesday, Trump wrote, “We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.”

He called for Apple to “step up to the plate” and help the US government in its investigation.

It’s worth pointing out, the impeached president really hasn’t stopping whining about every little thing on Twitter even before he took office. Ever since then, it’s been non-stop headache inducing whining and crying. It could be about anything including his Home Alone 2 scene getting cut for time airing on CBC or a news organization interviewing a political opponent. It’s how critics have been able to accuse him of having a really thin skin.

So, for political junkies, this latest Tweetstorm is nothing new and could just amount to background noise at this stage. For tech observers, however, this could be proof that the war encryption comes straight from the top. It’s not something Barr is simply doing as a pet project to further undermine America, but rather, an administration-wide policy to undermine American technological prowess. If there was any doubt of that before, such doubt ultimately has been erased.

Unfortunately, any practical solution to this problem is going to be political. The hope is that enough American’s will see what is going on in the ongoing impeachment process and think twice about voting Republican in the 2020 general election. As a number of political junkies know, it’s no longer enough to win the popular vote (otherwise, we’d be talking about president Hillary Clinton by now). Instead, even more votes are needed to overcome the electoral college vote hurdle that has a history of favouring Republicans as well.

Some might argue that maybe if enough logic and reason is applied in this situation, then such plans will be backed off from. In the past, such thinking might have been viable to a degree where logic and reason will carry the day. These days, however, such a strategy isn’t very feasible. As many point out, since Trumps inauguration, we have officially entered into a post-truth era. Irrefutable proof is not even close to being enough to change minds at this stage. That’s why the most likely scenario to resolve this problem is a political one instead of a solution based on reason.

One thing is for sure, things are looking worse on the war on security. One can only hope that the election will come around fast enough to stop these efforts dead in their tracks. Failing that, a governmental change will hopefully take place to reverse as many of these policies as possible to minimize the damage these policies will undoubtedly cause.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.

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