queequagg
queequagg t1_iydzm2n wrote
Reply to comment by Dje4321 in Alexa, is the voice-assistant industry doomed? by WestEst101
>They handed over their icloud backups without hesitation
Of course they did, the FBI had a warrant. They follow the law. It is the user’s choice whether to use a cloud backup, however. You can use encrypted local backups if you prefer.
>because even if they did create a backdoor to let them bypass the password, most of the data would still be encrypted with the devices password
The back door the fbi wanted was a way to inject and run cracking software on the device. Most people’s passcodes are 4-6 digits. That’s trivial to crack, except that the OS (and in more recent phones, the Secure Enclave hardware) limits the rate of decryption attempts. IIRC the FBI found an Israeli company that used security flaws to do exactly that.
>There was nothing stopping the FBI, from simply cloning the devices storage, and simply guessing the shooters passcode which if it was a pin
The pin is entangled with a hardware encryption key physically built into the cpu. Cracking the encryption off the device is practically impossible.
queequagg t1_j8nvtr3 wrote
Reply to comment by 24links24 in US’s first solar panels over canals pilot will deploy iron flow batteries by For_All_Humanity
Based on the article you linked below, what happened is after the DOE developed the tech, they licensed it to a U.S. company that was started by the lead scientist. That company ended up violating the license by sublicensing to a Chinese company because it was cheaper and easier due to better supply chains and more willingness by other companies to invest in these technologies there. Typical American capitalism at work, sadly.
Meanwhile, “the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Energy lacked resources to properly monitor its licenses” and they never noticed this shit going down.
The primary tie in to “US politics” here is the underfunded government department that is incapable of enforcing its existing regulations, allowing capitalism to do what is best for money rather than what is best for Americans. In the last couple decades, where Republicans haven’t been able to wholesale remove regulations (which they also do plenty of) they’ve been using a strategy of defunding and dismantling agencies so that the regulations are toothless. This particular situation began in 2017, a period when of course this shit really accelerated. (Hell, the DOE specifically was targeted as useless by many Republicans at that time).