February 16, 2016 A Message to Our Customers
All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.
Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.
For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.
When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.
We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.
In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.
The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.
The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.
The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.
While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.
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ISIS declares the US dollar as its official currency Hang The Bankers - ISIS may threaten violence against the United States and aim to rid the Islamic world of U.S. influence and U.S.-backed regimes, but if you want to do business in the group’s ersatz caliphate, you’d better have money backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The AP reports : Within the last two weeks, the extremist group started accepting only dollars for “tax” payments, water and electric bills, according to the Raqqa activist, who asked to be identified by his nom de guerre Abu Ahmad for his safety. “Everything is paid in dollars,” he said.
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270,000 truckers told their pensions will be cut up to 60%
(KCTV) - Retired union workers facing large pension cuts gathered to voice their anger at those cuts Tuesday. Representative Emanuel Cleaver conducted the town hall meeting. According to Cleaver, more than 270,000 people from across several states, including Missouri, who have vested millions of dollars into their pension funds, have been told their benefits from the Central States Pension Fund would be drastically cut, some as much as by 60 percent.... The cuts are the result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, which allows the pension company to ask the U.S. Treasury for permission to cut payments to remain solvent.... Pensioners will have the chance to vote on whether to accept the proposed cuts. The Treasury Department says if someone doesn’t vote, or can’t vote, the ballot counts in favor of the cuts. Ballots should be mailed out to all union members, past and present.
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California hospital computer system taken "hostage" CBS News - The FBI is leading the investigation of a hostage situation at a California hospital -- but it's not people who were being held, it was the hospital's computer system. Inside Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, computer screens were dark since hackers took over the data network almost two weeks ago. Calls to the hospital's media line were met with a voicemail recording. "We want to assure you that patient care at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian has not been compromised, as we continue to address this incident," the voice recording said. The attack used what's known as "ransom-ware" -- malicious software that encrypts files which can only be unlocked with a software "key" after a ransom is paid. In this case, hackers demanded, and the hospital paid an $17,000 in the digital currency bitcoin -- which is nearly impossible to trace.
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MOODY'S WARNING: PAIN AHEAD FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY...
Hungary Central Bank Stockpiles Guns, Bullets...
WALMART Lowers Forecast...
/
ISIS execute a 15-year-old boy by beheading after he is caught listening to western music in Iraq--Dragged before a sharia kangaroo court which sentenced him to death
/
Euro over Dollar: Brazil waivers US currency in trade with Iran ,as shown in the 3 minute video by RT—60% of the world’s GDP is now being traded in other than the US DOLLAR!
The Need for Encryption
Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.
Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.
For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.
The San Bernardino Case
We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.
We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.
The Threat to Data Security
Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.
The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.
The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.
A Dangerous Precedent
Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.
While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.
Tim Cook
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NUKE MATERIAL STOLEN IN IRAQ
ISIS DIRTY BOMB FEAR
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Jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers 'heading for UK airspace'...
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BATTLE OVER CHINA BUYING CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE...
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A NURSE’S PERSPECTIVE: JUSTICE SCALIA’S DEATH IN TEXAS IS THE 21ST CENTURY VERSION OF THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK
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BREAKING: WW3 May Have Begun This Morning! Turkey Shelling Syria, Saudis Attack, and Russian ‘NEW WORLD WAR’ Ultimatum!
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Obama rejects GOP calls to let next president choose Scalia’s successor
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National Sheriff's Association Calls Out Obama: 'Your Silence Is Deafening' - Have We Reached The 'Death Of Justice' In America?
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At Least 5 Dead After Massive Explosion In Turkish Capital, Military Dormitory Targeted
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NUKE MATERIAL STOLEN IN IRAQ
ISIS DIRTY BOMB FEAR
/
Jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers 'heading for UK airspace'...
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Chinese money for a U.S. exchange, U.S. tech for Chinese exchanges....
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
BATTLE OVER CHINA BUYING CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE...
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A NURSE’S PERSPECTIVE: JUSTICE SCALIA’S DEATH IN TEXAS IS THE 21ST CENTURY VERSION OF THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK
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BREAKING: WW3 May Have Begun This Morning! Turkey Shelling Syria, Saudis Attack, and Russian ‘NEW WORLD WAR’ Ultimatum!
/
Obama rejects GOP calls to let next president choose Scalia’s successor
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National Sheriff's Association Calls Out Obama: 'Your Silence Is Deafening' - Have We Reached The 'Death Of Justice' In America?
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At Least 5 Dead After Massive Explosion In Turkish Capital, Military Dormitory Targeted
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VATICAN RESPONDS TO TRUMP: US Has “Duty” to Host Immigrants Who Come from Other Countries
ISIS declares the US dollar as its official currency Hang The Bankers - ISIS may threaten violence against the United States and aim to rid the Islamic world of U.S. influence and U.S.-backed regimes, but if you want to do business in the group’s ersatz caliphate, you’d better have money backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The AP reports : Within the last two weeks, the extremist group started accepting only dollars for “tax” payments, water and electric bills, according to the Raqqa activist, who asked to be identified by his nom de guerre Abu Ahmad for his safety. “Everything is paid in dollars,” he said.
/
270,000 truckers told their pensions will be cut up to 60%
(KCTV) - Retired union workers facing large pension cuts gathered to voice their anger at those cuts Tuesday. Representative Emanuel Cleaver conducted the town hall meeting. According to Cleaver, more than 270,000 people from across several states, including Missouri, who have vested millions of dollars into their pension funds, have been told their benefits from the Central States Pension Fund would be drastically cut, some as much as by 60 percent.... The cuts are the result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, which allows the pension company to ask the U.S. Treasury for permission to cut payments to remain solvent.... Pensioners will have the chance to vote on whether to accept the proposed cuts. The Treasury Department says if someone doesn’t vote, or can’t vote, the ballot counts in favor of the cuts. Ballots should be mailed out to all union members, past and present.
/
California hospital computer system taken "hostage" CBS News - The FBI is leading the investigation of a hostage situation at a California hospital -- but it's not people who were being held, it was the hospital's computer system. Inside Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, computer screens were dark since hackers took over the data network almost two weeks ago. Calls to the hospital's media line were met with a voicemail recording. "We want to assure you that patient care at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian has not been compromised, as we continue to address this incident," the voice recording said. The attack used what's known as "ransom-ware" -- malicious software that encrypts files which can only be unlocked with a software "key" after a ransom is paid. In this case, hackers demanded, and the hospital paid an $17,000 in the digital currency bitcoin -- which is nearly impossible to trace.
/
MOODY'S WARNING: PAIN AHEAD FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY...
Hungary Central Bank Stockpiles Guns, Bullets...
WALMART Lowers Forecast...
/
ISIS execute a 15-year-old boy by beheading after he is caught listening to western music in Iraq--Dragged before a sharia kangaroo court which sentenced him to death
/
Euro over Dollar: Brazil waivers US currency in trade with Iran ,as shown in the 3 minute video by RT—60% of the world’s GDP is now being traded in other than the US DOLLAR!
/
Cliven Bundy, 69, was charged Wednesday with 16 felonies for an armed 2014 standoff in Nevada
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POPE PICKS FIGHT WITH TRUMP
ENTERS U.S. ELECTION BATTLE
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Secretive APPLE Facility In CA Neighborhood Driving Residents Crazy...
iPhone sales fall for first time...
APPLE vs. FBI: Civil Liberties and Stock Value...
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Sheriffs: Beyonce 'inciting bad behavior' and endangering law enforcement...
Tampa cops deny request to work concert...
Miami police vow security boycott...
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SYRIA FOOD SHORTAGE! In Syria, hungry residents sell gold for food
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BREAKING: TRUMP RESPONDS TO POPE FRANCIS ATTACKS – 'Pope Will Wish I Was President If (WHEN) ISIS Attacks Vatican' (VIDEO)
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Tragic sonogram shows moment dying twin holds hands with his unborn sister in the womb.
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Rick Wiles: Mr. Pope, tear down that wall! Rick Wiles of TRUNEWS responded to Pope Francis’ denouncement of Donald Trump as a Christian today, by saying that if the Pope believes in open borders he should tear down the walls of Vatican city and accept Muslim refugees.
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Too busy for Scalia, but Obama did have time for these funerals The White House announced on Wednesday that neither President Barack Obama or first lady Michelle Obama will be attending the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. While Justice Scalia’s funeral apparently doesn’t warrant Obama’s presence, here are six funerals that did. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Less than two months before the 2012 election, both
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Fearing Americans are tiring of the war on terror, DHS creates a "new breed of terrorism"
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Fearing Americans are tiring of the war on terror, DHS creates a "new breed of terrorism"
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Feds Roll Out “See Something, Say Something” for the Internet
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"I Guess It's Food Stamps": 400,000 Americans In Jeopardy As Giant Pension Fund Plans 50% Benefit Cuts
Dale Dorsey isn’t happy.
After working 33 years, he’s facing a 55% cut to his pension benefits, a blow which he says will “cripple” his family and imperil the livelihood of his two children, one of whom is in the fourth grade and one of whom is just entering high school.
Dorsey attended a town hall meeting in Kansas City on Tuesday where retirees turned out for a discussion on “massive” pension cuts proposed by the Central States Pension Fund, which covers 400,000 participants, and which will almost certainly go broke within the next decade.
“A controversial 2014 law allowed the pension to propose [deep] cuts, many of them by half or more, as a way to perhaps save the fund,” The Kansas City Star wrote earlier this week adding that “two much smaller pensions also have sought similar relief under the law, and still more pensions are significantly underfunded.”
“What’s happening to us is a microcosm of what’s going to happen to the rest of the pensions in the United States,” said Jay Perry, a longtime Teamsters member.
Jay is probably correct.
Public sector pension funds are grossly underfunded in places like Chicago and Houston, while private sector funds are struggling to deal with rock bottom interest rates, which put pressure on expected returns and thus drive the present value of funds’ liabilities higher.
Illinois’ pension burden has brought the state to its knees financially speaking and in November, Springfield was forced to miss a $560 million payment to its retirement fund. In the private sector, GM said on Thursday that it will sell 20- and 30-year bonds in order to meet its pension obligations."At the end of last year GM's U.S. hourly pension plan was underfunded by $10.4 billion," The New York Times writes. "About $61 billion of the obligations were funded for the plan's roughly 360,000 pensioners." Maybe it's time for tax payers to bail themselves out.
Speaking of GM, Kenneth Feinberg - the man who oversaw the distribution of cash compensation to victims who were involved in accidents tied to faulty ignition switches - is now tasked with deciding whether the Central States Pension Fund's proposal to cut benefits passes legal muster. "Central States’ proposal would allow the retirees to work and still collect their reduced benefits. But some are no longer able to work, and the idea didn’t seem plausible to others," the Star goes on to note.
“You know anybody hiring a 73-year-old mechanic?” Rod Heelan asked Feinberg. “I’m available.”
“I’ll have to go find a job. I don’t know. I’m 68,” Gary Meyer of Concordia, Mo said. “It would probably be a minimum-wage job.”
To be sure, retirees' frustrations are justified. That said, the fund is simply running out of money. "We simply can’t stay afloat if we continue to pay out $3.46 in pension benefits for every $1 paid in from contributing employers," a letter to retirees reads.
The fund is projected to go broke by 2026. Without the proposed cuts, no benefits at all will be paid from that point forward.
According to letters shared with The Star, cuts range from around 40% to 61%. "[The] average pension loss was more than $1,400 a month," the paper says.
As for what will become of those who depend upon their benefits to survive, the above quoted Gary Meyer summed it up best: "I guess food stamps. Hopefully not. It would be a last resort."
Don't worry Gary, you aren't alone...
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Swiss Politicians Slam Attempts To Eliminate Cash, Compare Paper Money To A Gun Defending Freedom
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Jobless Benefits Claims Soar 100% In Canada's Dying Oil Patch As Construction Jobs Plunge 84%
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UNREAL. Obama Meets With Black Lives Matter Hate Group After Supporters Beat and Rob a Hero Marine
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DHS Brings the "If You See Something, Say Something" Campaign to the Internet Realm
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US Marshals Are Arresting People Who Have Not Paid Back Their Student Loan
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Greg Hunter-Weekly News Wrap-Up 2.19.16
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The US Goverment Recovery Just Went Down The Drain
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Pope embraces Castro but calls Trump anti-Christian!
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Deere In Headlights After Guidance Cut: Sees 10% Sales Drop Due To "Downturn In Global Farm Economy"
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This map shows all the central banks with negative interest rates 
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