Follow the money
Have to wonder how much Apple stock vs stock in Google or Samsung is held by the decision-makers in this case.
I mean, if you wanted to wreck Apple's business you couldn't ask for a better scenario.
But then the same people went ahead and crippled the ability of US businesses to compete for offshore customers in the cloud products market, so maybe it's that they're too stupid to understand the consequences. Or they just don't care.
Remind me, isn't the same US government who in a recent hack lost the results of security clearance investigations on 23 million past and future public employees, and those associated with them?
To paraphrase, "You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"
The leadership of the FBI and other three letter agencies have benefited over the years from a mythology of exaggerated expertise and high ethical standards. The fact is that very little of that mythology has any basis in fact. The FBI is asking for Apple's help because neither the Congress nor the Executive have seen fit to make the investment required to provide them the necessary staff to get the job done. That's why a contract systems administrator was able to carry a treasure trove of confidential documents out of the NSA (which he did, as far as we know, without any hope of monetary gain -- imagine what someone in it to make a fortune could do, or probably has done). These agencies don't have the expertise to even run their own networks, let alone develop and deploy custom smartphone firmware.
Question, how many former Apple engineers are employed by the FBI? I know that might sound harsh, seeing that after a decade there are probably still more Russian than Arabic (or Farsi) speakers working for the agency, but it's a question that someone needs to ask.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
