All posts tagged: Department of Justice

What the Apple Antitrust Suit Means for the Future of Messaging

What the Apple Antitrust Suit Means for the Future of Messaging

Published by skeptic

Apple has gotten used to being a favorite target of rivals and government agencies. The company has been repeatedly scrutinized by regulators around the world, and other tech companies have accused the company of anticompetitive practices. Apple’s most recent legal challenge is a doozy: an antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice and more than a dozen state attorneys general. The suit takes aim at the security and privacy features offered only on the iPhone, and accuses Apple of using that exclusivity to lock consumers into its ecosystem. At the center of the suit is the lack of cross-platform encryption on Apple’s messaging platform—the green-bubble-blue-bubble divide—which the government alleges harms consumers by leaving them more vulnerable to attacks. This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED senior security editor Andrew Couts about the encryption and privacy issues behind the DOJ’s suit against Apple, and how the dreaded green bubbles on iMessage factor in. Show Notes Read Andrew and Andy Greenberg’s WIRED story about how the DOJ is targeting Apple’s iMessage encryption. Read …

The Science of Crypto Forensics Survives a Court Battle—for Now

The Science of Crypto Forensics Survives a Court Battle—for Now

Published by skeptic

On March 12, Russian-Swedish national Roman Sterlingov was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy and other violations by a federal jury in Washington, DC, for having operated Bitcoin Fog, a service criminals used to launder what authorities claim was hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. The conviction was heralded by the US Department of Justice as a victory over crypto-enabled criminality, but Sterlingov’s lawyers maintain the case against him was flawed and plan to appeal. They allege that the nascent science used to collect evidence against him is not fit for the purpose. The DOJ investigation used blockchain forensics, a technique whereby investigators scrutinize the public trail of crypto transactions to map the flow of funds. In a statement, Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general for the US, described the DOJ as “painstakingly tracing bitcoin through the blockchain” to identify Sterlingov as the pseudonymous administrator behind Bitcoin Fog. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have acquired an undeserved reputation for being less traceable than conventional money, but evidence collected this way has brought down many criminals …

The Public Has a Right to Trump’s Speedy Trial

The Public Has a Right to Trump’s Speedy Trial

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump is determined to avoid accountability before the general election, and, so far, the U.S. Supreme Court is helping him. Trump has no legal ground whatsoever to delay a ruling in his plea for presidential immunity. The reason Trump has nevertheless sought to slow down the immunity appeals process is obvious: to postpone the trial date, hopefully pushing it into a time when, as president, he would control the Department of Justice and thus could squash the prosecution altogether. The Supreme Court has shamed itself by being a party to this, when the sole issue before the Court is presidential immunity. By contrast, Special Counsel Jack Smith has both law and policy on his side in seeking a prompt determination on immunity and a speedy trial soon thereafter. Yet the Court has ignored all that. David A. Graham: The cases against Trump–a guide The Supreme Court’s lollygagging is reflected in its scheduling the immunity case for a leisurely April 25 hearing. It’s too late to do anything about that now, but the Court has …

The Case Against Apple Weaponizes the Cult of Cupertino

The Case Against Apple Weaponizes the Cult of Cupertino

Published by skeptic

Back in 2022 at the annual Code Conference, where tech luminaries submit to on-stage interviews, an audience member asked Apple CEO Tim Cook for some tech support. “I can’t send my mom certain videos,” he said, because she used an Android device incompatible with Apple’s iMessage. Cook’s now-infamous response was, “Buy your mom an iPhone.” Cook’s remark and Apple’s recent decision to block a third-party app from bridging the Android-to-iMessage interoperability chasm are two of the many examples of allegedly monopolistic behavior cited in the US government’s antitrust suit against Apple. Central to the case is Apple’s practice of “locking in” iPhone customers, by undermining competing apps, using its proprietary messaging protocol as glue, and generally making it challenging for people to switch to other phones. Those accusations are backed up by lawyerly references to the Sherman Act. But the complaint also shows the Department of Justice crafting a cultural narrative, trying to tell a technology tale with a clear message—like an episode of crime drama Dragnet, says antitrust expert William Kovacic, who teaches at …

4 Internal Apple Emails That Helped the DOJ Build Its Case

4 Internal Apple Emails That Helped the DOJ Build Its Case

Published by skeptic

Apple uses the dominance of the iPhone to illegally suppress competition in ways that harm consumers, the US Department of Justice alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday. Apple has denied it acts illegally, with spokesperson Fred Sainz saying that the suit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.” But key parts of the suit use the words of Apple’s own executives against the company. The DOJ lawsuit quotes internal emails to argue that Apple knowingly restricts users and developers in unfair ways. Here is how four of the messages appear to show executives discussing how to maintain tight control of Apple’s ecosystem. “Not Fun to Watch” The DOJ’s complaint opens by quoting an email exchange from 2010 between Apple cofounder and then CEO Steve Jobs and an unnamed “top Apple executive.” It describes the executive emailing Jobs about a new ad for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, in which a woman first uses an iPhone to buy and read books using Amazon’s iOS Kindle app but later reads …

DOJ lawsuit against Apple is headline grabber but poses limited near-term impact

DOJ lawsuit against Apple is headline grabber but poses limited near-term impact

Published by skeptic

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple Thursday, accusing the company led by CEO Tim Cook of engaging in anti-competitive business practices. The allegations include claims that Apple prevents competitors from accessing certain iPhone features and that the company’s actions impact the “flow of speech” through its streaming service, Apple TV+. However, even if the DOJ proves any of the allegations, it is highly unlikely that Apple will face material changes for years, as history shows that such lawsuits often take a significant amount of time to reach the trial, let alone a resolution. The DOJ’s ongoing case against Google, filed in 2020, only went to trial in 2023, with no remedies or financial implications expected for up to two more years. This is not the first time Apple has faced legal action from the DOJ. In 2012, the agency sued Apple for conspiring with publishers to increase ebook prices, a lawsuit that was not settled until 2016. “Precedents suggest that resolution of the complaint will take three to five years, including appeals,” …

Apple’s iMessage Encryption Puts Its Security Practices in the DOJ’s Crosshairs

Apple’s iMessage Encryption Puts Its Security Practices in the DOJ’s Crosshairs

Published by skeptic

The argument is one that some Apple critics have made for years, as spelled out in an essay in January by Cory Doctorow, the science fiction writer, tech critic, and co-author of Chokepoint Capitalism. “The instant an Android user is added to a chat or group chat, the entire conversation flips to SMS, an insecure, trivially hacked privacy nightmare that debuted 38 years ago—the year Wayne’s World had its first cinematic run,” Doctorow writes. “Apple’s answer to this is grimly hilarious. The company’s position is that if you want to have real security in your communications, you should buy your friends iPhones.” In a statement to WIRED, Apple says it designs its products to “work seamlessly together, protect people’s privacy and security, and create a magical experience for our users,” and adds that the DOJ lawsuit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart” in the marketplace. The company also says it hasn’t released an Android version of iMessage because it couldn’t ensure that third parties would implement it in ways …

The Antitrust Case Against Apple Argues It Has a Stranglehold on the Future

The Antitrust Case Against Apple Argues It Has a Stranglehold on the Future

Published by skeptic

The US Department of Justice had long been expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. But when the suit arrived Thursday, it came with surprising ferocity. In a press conference, attorney general Merrick Garland noted that Apple controlled more than 70 percent of the country’s smartphone market, saying the company used that outsized power to control developers and consumers and squeeze more revenue out of them. The suit and messaging from DoJ and fifteen states and the District of Columbia joining it take aim at Apple’s most prized asset—the iPhone—and position the case as a fight for the future of technology. The suit argues that Apple rose to its current power thanks in part to the 1998 antitrust case against Microsoft, and that another milestone antitrust correction is needed to allow future innovation to continue. Like the Microsoft case, the suit against Apple is “really dynamic and forward looking,” says John Newman, a law professor at the University of Miami. “It’s not necessarily about Apple seeing direct competitors,” he says. “It’s more about them …

Justice Department launches criminal probe into Boeing 737 MAX Alaska Airlines incident

Justice Department launches criminal probe into Boeing 737 MAX Alaska Airlines incident

Published by skeptic

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a criminal investigation following the Alaska Airlines incident during which a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max mid-flight. Investigators have contacted some passengers and crew who were on the Jan. 5 flight that made the emergency landing in Portland, Ore., the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The DOJ has conducted interviews with pilots and flight attendants on the flight, the outlet said, citing documents and people familiar with the investigation. The Alaska Airlines flight was a Boeing plane that suffered a blowout shortly after takeoff at 16,000 feet elevation. Pilots successfully landed the plane and there were no major injuries, but Boeing has been under heightened criticism since the incident. The part of the plane that blew off was a panel that was plugging a space left for an extra emergency door. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation into the incident shortly after it happened. The Federal Aviation Administration is probing overall safety at Boeing. The Hill has reached out to Alaska Airlines …

Department of Justice closes investigation into SBC’s handling of abuse

Department of Justice closes investigation into SBC’s handling of abuse

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Federal officials have concluded an investigation into sexual abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, with no charges being filed. News that the investigation was closed was first reported by The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. “On February 29, 2024, counsel for the SBC Executive Committee was informed that the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has concluded its investigation into the EC with no further action to be taken,” Jonathan Howe, Executive Committee interim president and CEO, told Religion News Service in a text responding to a request for comment. News of the investigation became public in August 2022, after the Executive Committee first received a subpoena from the Department of Justice. That subpoena was issued a few months after the release of a major report showing some SBC leaders had mistreated abuse survivors for years and had intentionally sought to downplay the number of sexual abuse cases in the 13.2 million-member denomination. Few details about the investigation have been made public and the Department of Justice has never …