The FBI’s ability to hack into an iPhone may not last much longer
By Lulu Chang
If you have not been keeping up with the latest Apple news, the multi billion dollar company has been in a tough lawsuit with the United States government. Apple denied the government’s request to unlock an iPhone that belonged to the criminal behind San Bernardino. However, just recently the US government found their own way into the iPhone, but according to this article, they won’t for much longer. once the security flaw that allowed officials to get inside the mobile device is fixed, the opportunity for police to exploit this weakness will be gone for good. And it looks as though the exposure of that security flaw is inevitable. The FBI said it will reveal how it gained access the iPhone 5C “when the time is right”, but experts note that the government may soon have to reveal its secrets in a court of law.
The reason I picked this article was because it followed a case that tested the privacy laws in the United States. The case proved that Apple would not breach the security of on of its products, regardless of whether the government commands them to. Conversely, it showed that the government would do anything to get the information it needs. The article shed light on the weakness that the government officials exposed, and just how much longer they will be able to do this.
The article did a good job presenting the necessary information in a short but sweet manner. I liked how Chang quoted an Apple engineer to show the progress Apple is making on fixing the security flaw and how confident they seem. I did not like, however, some of the language the author used. Sometimes I felt she said things that made it hard to understand what her point was, and wish she just simplified her sentences. Maybe she could have included some pictures in her article.
Chang, Lulu. "The FBI’s Ability to Hack into an IPhone May Not Last Much Longer." Digital Trends. N.p., 03 Apr. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2016. <http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/fbi-hack-iphone/>.
I read Sam’s review on the article, “The FBI’s Ability to Hack into an iPhone May Not Last Much Longer”, by Lulu Chang. He did a good job of summarizing the article, stating that the government won’t be able to hack into iPhones much longer. In the recent news, there was a lawsuit in which Apple denied the FBI to hack the iPhone 5c that belonged to the criminal behind the San Bernardino attacks. The government found a way to get in anyway, but Apple vows to fix the security breach. The FBI says that they will reveal how they got in when the time is right, but they might have to reveal their secrets earlier in a court. Sam also did a good job of identifying the positive and negative aspects of the article, pointing out that Chang’s language was confusing and sometimes misleading.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Sam did a great job of reviewing the article, there were a few aspects that could have been improved on. For instance, including a quote would have been beneficial to the validity of the review. Also, there were some grammar mistakes that indicated that the review wasn’t proofread.
This review is important because it addressed recent events in the news. Even though people are entitled to their privacy as stated in the Constitution, the government should be able to hack phones, especially if they have a subpoena or they are investigating people involved in crime. If officials can’t do this, terrorist attacks might increase in scale and the government won’t be able to do their job of protecting the people. Lastly, I don’t think the government should or have to share their ways of hacking phones because it just gives criminals an advantage.
Sam’s review on the article, “The FBI’s ability to hack into an iPhone may not last much longer” was well written. The summary of the article was very concise and easy to understand, and he did a great job of explaining why the government will not be allowed to hack into iPhones in the future. He also had a very intriguing opening sentence that would pull any reader in, especially because so many well-known news channels and papers have covered this topic. Lastly, Sam consistently highlighted the most important aspect of the article throughout his review: the FBI officials exposed a security flaw of the phone, and once this flaw is revealed in court, it will no longer be allowed to be used by future officials. He continued to refer back to this claim in all parts of the review, and he made it clear that this was the most important takeaway.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this review was well written, there are a couple improvements that can be made. There were some grammatical and punctuation errors that disrupted the flow of the piece, but these can easily fixed. Also, the inclusion of a quote from the article could have strengthened the review as a whole, as well as credited the claim.
Both this article and review gave me a better understanding of the FBI’s involvement in the hacking of the terrorist’s iPhone from the San Bernardino shooting. I was unaware that the FBI officials were able to unlock the phone due to a minor security issue that will be fixed in the future, so this won’t happen again. It leaves me wondering what future officials will have to resort to if they need to unlock a phone.
In Sam’s review, he talks about the FBI’s current ability to hack into an iPhone and how it soon might be ineffective. I think he did a good job on picking an article with an interesting subject as the topic of lack of privacy is very relevant in today’s world. In addition, Sam did a nice job of critiquing the author. He gave valid opinions on what the author did both well and badly. One last thing Sam did an awesome job on was the way he incorporated a quote from the article into his summary, which was “when the time is right.” This quote has to do with the FBI revealing how they gained access to the iPhone 5C “when the time is right." This adds to Sam’s writing by helping me to view the FBI’s actions as questionable and sneaky, similarly to the way Sam and the author of the article does. One thing I think Sam could improve is his summary of the article. He gives a very brief outline of the article, which left me with not much information on the situation. If Sam added a slightly more in depth summary of the article, I could have understood the case more clearly. Another thing Sam could fix is his suggestion to the author. He states that the author could have included some pictures in the article. I think this suggestion is not very fitting for the article because there aren’t really any visuals that would have added to the content. I decided to choose this article review because of the article’s title. The government’s breech of privacy and the ability to hack onto anyone’s devices is often topics I think are relevant to my life, so this article was perfect for that. The biggest thing I took away from this article was the fact that Apple is fighting against the FBI and their demands to hack onto people’s iPhones. This makes me respect Apple more. Although this article was written in the spring, hopefully Apple has fixed their newest iPhone, the iPhone 7, to not be as vulnerable to hackers.
ReplyDeleteChang, Lulu. "The FBI’s Ability to Hack into an IPhone May Not Last Much Longer." Digital Trends. Digital Trends, 03 Apr. 2016. Web. 20 Sept. 2016. .