For those MSPs paying attention to the evening news, you've probably heard about the FBI case with Apple. For those of you not familiar, here are the quick facts.
The San Bernardino terrorists had Apple iPhones, which were locked when they committed their crimes. The husband's iPhone, owned by San Bernardino county and now in FBI possession, may have important information and the authorities are interested in seeing what's on the phone.
The FBI has failed to access the iPhone because it is locked and repeated attempts to enter the passcode will result in the phone erasing its data. The FBI has asked Apple to help them break into the phone. Apple has refused. We now have a growing legal debate, as well as a technology debate in our country about law enforcement and personal privacy.
Privacy vs. Law Enforcement
There are two undeniable forces at play here, the need for law enforcement to investigate a crime which already took place, and the rights of citizens to be safe, secure, and free from unauthorized governmental intrusion.
The fact that this is a crime that has already occurred is important because this debate might be different if this was a phone belonging to a living person only accused of a crime. The phone belonged to a person (now dead) who committed a terrorist act. There is a legitimate need for the FBI to see the contents of the phone.
Where Apple enters the picture is on a unique and somewhat new topic in our country related to assisting law enforcement in breaking into a device which could have a greater impact beyond just this single device.
What FBI Wants From Apple
The FBI wants Apple to help them break into the terrorists phone by developing special technology to bypass the auto-wipe functionality if too many wrong password attempts are made. Now, this technology would presumably apply only to the San Bernardino iPhone but there is no guarantee. Apple has refused this request.
MDM & BYOD
Besides the issue of whether the FBI should receive such backdoor technology into every iPhone, there is the relevant issue of mobile device management (MDM). MSPs are well aware of MDM technology and have been using it for many years. Remember back to the days of Blackberry Enterprise Server?
MDM offers MSPs the ability to remotely monitor and manage mobile devices for customers, much the same way they have managed other network devices like servers and firewalls. MDM, however, has a much greater impact today with the advent of BYOD.
