No likey no unlocky

[NigelJK]

From the 1994 NYT article:

"The time has come for Britain to declassify its full contemporary records or the myth will grow on this side of the Atlantic that American history is being held hostage by the British obsession with secrecy," Mr. Costello said.

To paraphrase the other article 'America failed to put 2 and 2 together to make 4' - i.e. Given their own intelligence gathering they would almost certainly have identified that Pearl Harbour was a target for the Japanese given their previous.


From the site I mentioned above (my bolding):

On November 19, 1941, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo sent out a 'Purple' message to its embassies and consulates around the world. It instructed them to listen to Japanese news bulletins. If they ended with a weather report saying 'east wind rain' the attack would be on the US. 'North wind cloudy' would mean an attack on Russia, and 'west wind clear' would herald an attack on the British, with an invasion of Thailand or Malaya, or an attack on the Dutch East Indies. Both the British listening station in Melbourne and the American station in Seattle intercepted this and reported it to London and Washington respectively. While the Japanese diplomatic traffic still talked of negotiation, JN-25 traffic intercepted by the British talked of 'opening hostilities.' From November 21, it was clear that an attack was being set in motion and a large Japanese fleet was being assembled. Meanwhile, Japanese merchant ships were sailing home.

[DaveB]

From the 1994 NYT article:



To paraphrase the other article 'America failed to put 2 and 2 together to make 4' - i.e. Given their own intelligence gathering they would almost certainly have identified that Pearl Harbour was a target for the Japanese given their previous.


From the site I mentioned above (my bolding):

All of which supports the view that while the British knew the Japanese were planning something, they didn't know specifically what. From the Telegraph article on the Memo concerning Japanese activity:

The information, contained in a declassified memorandum from the Office of Naval Intelligence, adds to proof that Washington dismissed red flags signalling that mass bloodshed was looming and war was imminent.


"In anticipation of possible open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii," stated the 26-page memo.

Dated December 4, 1941, marked as confidential, and entitled "Japanese intelligence and propaganda in the United States," it flagged up Japan's surveillance of Hawaii under a section headlined "Methods of Operation and Points of Attack."

From the NYT Article:

The document said that as of Dec. 1, 1941, British intelligence had determined that of Japan's 10 aircraft carriers, four were in the South China Sea near Formosa and four others in Japanese home waters, Dr. Best said. Intelligence reports said the other two carriers were near Saipan, more than 3,000 miles west of Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 4.

In reality, two of the carriers that British intelligence thought were in the South China Sea and all four of those assumed to be in Japanese waters were heading under radio silence toward Pearl Harbor, Dr. Best said.

"This was an internal history, designed for internal consumption only," Dr. Best said. "There's no reason for it to say something designed to mislead. I think this does prove, since there's no reason for it to have an angle, that Britain did not know."

The Americans had everything they needed to conclude there would be an attack. They ignored it.

[NickFitz]

The plot thickens: it turns out the iPhone in question isn't the shooter's own; it's his work phone. He destroyed his own and his wife's phones.

But if it's his work phone, wouldn't his employer (San Bernardino County Department of Public Health) have control of it? Why yes, they would. But the FBI, having got the phone, asked the employer to reset the password on it.

And that's why they can no longer get his data off it: setting the new password uncoupled it from the guy's iCloud account.

And they did this after Apple had already explained to them how they could, probably, get the guy's data off it despite not having the password, just by letting it connect to wifi and back itself up to iCloud, whereupon Apple would hand them the backup, just as they had done already with the guy's earlier iCloud backups.

CORRECTION: it appears the FBI asked the employer to reset the password before seeking Apple's advice. They also didn't tell Apple they'd done this. So Apple told them to let it connect to the wifi at his place of work to create an iCloud backup as described above, and the FBI tried it, and told Apple it didn't work; and Apple said "WTF? Not sure why that wouldn't work" and then the FBI were like "Oh, BTW we reset the password before we ever asked you for help, but that shouldn't matter, right?" and Apple were like ""

So, basically, Apple had already done all it could to help the FBI, including explaining exactly what needed to be done next. But before Apple had the chance to do that someone at the FBI thought they knew better, and instead ****ed it up.

Ho hum

[NotAllThere]

...

So, basically, Apple had already done all it could to help the FBI, including explaining exactly what needed to be done next. But before Apple had the chance to do that someone at the FBI thought they knew better, and instead ****ed it up.

Should have called in GCHQ

[darmstadt]

Whoops Paper 1, iPad Pro 0: the moment Apple's iPad Pro fails company's top lawyer | Technology | The Guardian

[Troll]

Aha! I knew there were backdoors into everything

An Israeli newspaper has since reported that data forensics experts at Cellebrite are involved in the case.

Cellebrite told the BBC that it works with the FBI but would not say more.

Its website, however, states that one of its tools can extract and decode data from the iPhone 5C - the model in question - among other locked handsets. Apple has refused to help the FBI do this.

"File system extractions, decoding and analysis can be performed on locked iOS devices with a simple or complex passcode," Cellebrite's site states.

"Simple passcodes will be recovered during the physical extraction process and enable access to emails and keychain passwords.

"If a complex password is set on the device, physical extraction can be performed without access to emails and keychain."

The keychain reference relates to a tool on Apple devices that allows all of an owner's log-ins to be revealed if a master password is known.