FBI

Before getting my first tattoo, I joked that I was about to make any potential future as a fugitive from the law a lot harder. Tattoos, even trendy ones picked from the same book used by hundreds of other people, can be highly personal -- not just in what it means to a person, but in how much it helps identify that individual. Even small elements can say quite a bit about the person who got it, and the FBI is reportedly developing a technology that can exploit these unspoken cues.

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For a period of 10 months, the FBI planted hidden microphones in several public locations outside a courthouse in Oakland, California, it has recently been discovered. A warrant wasn't needed, but the microphones allowed the government to secretly record and monitor private conversations during the period between March 2010 and January 2011.

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Take a count of how many microphones are around your right now -- your phone, of course, which is probably always listening, and your laptop most likely. Your TV? Perhaps, if it's new enough. Your wireless speaker probably has a microphone, too, for speakerphone functions. Your smartwatch might have a microphone. There are even smart refrigerators cropping up with integrated microphones (for voice commands, not spying), and, of course, dedicated personal assistants like Amazon Echo and Tap. How many of those microphones has the FBI tapped?

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Apple wants to know how the FBI accessed the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, but the agency has no plans on giving away the goods, according to sources who have surfaced. These individuals say the FBI’s decision to withhold information is due largely in part to its lack of knowledge about how the technology works — while the agency knows how to use the tool, say the sources, it doesn’t know the particulars about the iPhone vulnerability and how it exploits it.

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Public information about the FBI’s method for unlocking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone is slight, and so we’re forced to piece together what precious little information is available. Take, for example, FBI Director James Comey’s recent statement about how much the FBI had to pay to get the iPhone unlocked: more than he will make in the remainder of his time serving as the bureau’s director, which a little bit of math estimates as $1.3 million.

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Apple's tussle with the government over encrypted iPhones isn't completely over yet but things have mellowed down somewhat. All the hoopla, mudslinging, and accusations, not to mention money, might have been for naught, however. According to an insider source on the side of law enforcement, the now hacked iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter has so far not produced any of the juicy information that the FBI alleges the smartphone holds, the very reason it took Apple to court in the first place.

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The ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI over bypassing an iPhone's security during a criminal investigation took an interesting turn last week, when the government abruptly dropped its court appointment, saying it had found another method to get inside the iPhone 5c at the middle of San Bernardino terrorism case. Unfortunately for the FBI, this new trick for bypassing Apple's encryption is unlikely to remain a secret for long.

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Surprise! The FBI has made a big production of trying to force Apple’s hand in unlocking an iPhone, Apple has waged a big legal battle to keep the government out of its users’ phones, and Snowden has claimed the FBI has been able to unlock the phone all along. It’s a revolving circus of serious litigation and possible precedent-setting court rulings, and it has just presented a big plot twist: the FBI may have just found a way to crack the iPhone, a new court document reveals.

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Drivers should be cautious of potential car hacks, the FBI has warned today, pointing out that increasingly connected vehicles open the door to futuristic automotive exploits. The PSA, issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Department of Transportation (DoT), recognizes that onboard data connections - whether installed by automakers themselves, or via a third-party accessory by the cars' owners - can be useful, but cautions that we're unlikely to have heard the last of high-profile hacking incidents.

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Apple has just filed a legal response to the Justice Department's response to Apple's response to the court order on behalf of the Justice Department. That simplified yet still confusing chronology of legal filings only shows the circus surrounding the tussle between Apple and government agencies, specifically the FBI, over unlocking the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. After being on the receiving end of some colorful remarks from the DOJ, Apple's latest legal statement fires back by saying how the Founding Fathers would be appalled by the DOJ's order.

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If you weren't already convinced one way or the other about the Apple FBI encryption case, today "Last Week Tonight" will do that job for you. John Oliver tackles encryption, showing how the situation has played out so far and how absurd everything has been. In this Last Week Tonight, like all Last Week Tonight episodes, Oliver not only takes the case and makes it all simple enough for any person to understand, he drops the mic at the end as well.

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From name calling to almost veiled threats. That's how far the tussle between Apple and the FBI over San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone has gone. In its most recent legal response to Apple's own legal filing, the Justice Department pretty much implied that it could require Apple to just give it the source code to its iOS mobile platform should the company continue to refuse to give in to the FBI's requests to unlock the iPhone. This was in response to one of Apple's arguments that it would cause an undue burden on the company.

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