WannaCry Ransomware Vindicates Apple’s Battle with the FBI
Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook came under fire from the FBI for not providing a custom, vulnerable version of iOS so the agency could hack into the iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. Cook refused, on the grounds that it would be impossible to keep any such back door out of the hands of criminals and other intelligence agencies. His stance has now been vindicated, as stolen NSA exploits released by the Shadow Brokers hacking group were used to spread the WannaCry ransomware throughout the world. WannaCry dominated headlines briefly by infecting more than 230,000 Windows-based computers in 150 countries in 24 hours, affecting major companies and even Britain's National Health Service.
Yeah, but try to explain that to the people the FBI aimed their PR campaign at. They convinced my barber that Apple is in collusion with terrorists. You can cite facts and evidence to these people until you're blue in the face and they'll never change their mind.
Tim Cook made a national security decision that he wasn’t elected to make, and at the time it wasn’t at all clear to him what classified intel FBI wasn’t telling him.
Since when do the FBI worry about PR? That’s Apple! FBI is responsible to US citizens for not giving up until they’ve exhaused their means. Tim is famously beholden to a global investors who only have profits in common. People were moving data off US servers due to NSA and Apple blows up a chance to advertise FBI can’t hack iPhones and Apple’s not fighting tenaciously.
Apple isn’t vindicated at all.. Their own story is very damning. As industry leaders they portreyed a clear and certain threat great enough to impede a domestic terror investigation. That means egregious negligence in selling the phone, and probably much more serious allegations about Tim who withheld critical info as our leaders sought call on him for input.