Secrets !

The right to privacy is determined by whatever laws are in place in the country in which we live, but basically the tax office has the right to snoop into our bank accounts to see if we are paying the correct tax and most regimes require the servers who channel our phone and email traffic to reveal " who we called " and " who called us "  !

Now a classic case is wending it's way through the justice system in the United States to determine if our last line of secrecy is to be broken.   An American court has ordered Apple to open the security device attached to the iPhone of Syed Farook who gunned down fourteen people in the San Bernadino massacre.  It is quite possible that this may reveal his links to other terrorists and be of help to the FBI in preventing further atrocities.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple is between a rock and a hard place.  If he disobeys that order he may go to jail, but if he accedes he will have handed the government the means to access the contents of every iPhone on the planet.  Apple cleverly built into the iPhone a security system that wipes all internal data the moment ten unsuccessful attempts are made to access it by attempting an incorrect pin number.

Without that, the FBI can break the code by sheer brute force.  A super computer can bombard the phones security device with trillions of random numbers until it eventually cracks the code and opens access.  Apple - as the originator of that security device - is the body with the knowledge to get around it's setting, but in doing so it would create a key that creates what is termed a " back door " to break the security of all other iPhones.

That is the crux of this problem.  Up until now it has been assumed that we have the right to privacy in what we confide through our phone traffic.  That can range from the messages we send to a lover to the protected encryption of trade secrets in the commercial world.  The authorities make a compelling case for breaching this security when it comes to thwarting the deadly intent of terrorists, but once that access key exists, the use to which it may be put becomes an " unknown "  !

Basically, the experience of the world's espionage agencies reveals that all ciphers can ultimately be broken, but Apple has been fiendishly clever with this form of protection.   The interceptor has just ten chances - and then the treasure within is gone.  The memory has been wiped clean - and the opportunity has vanished !

Code breaking is usually something we think about as a war time activity.  The legendary Bletchley Park in Britain was instrumental in breaking the German Enigma code and Chester Nimitz's code-breakers in Hawaii were pivotal in Japan's defeat.  What has changed is that the technology that was once the prerogative of nation states is now in the hands of every man and woman who have chosen an iPhone as their personal means of communication.

If the US government wins and Tim Cook hands over that vital key to create a backdoor entry it is unlikely to matter to the average iPhone user, but it will matter greatly to people like investigative journalists and scientists working to create new drugs that have the potential to earn millions if they achieve patent protection.  What is at stake is the principle of personal privacy !