How Obama, Apple and the FBI might be wrong<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

“The Founders would be appalled,” Apple wrote in its last court filing before it squares off against the government in federal court in California at a hearing on March 22.[1]<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Alina Selyukh, \u201cthe two-way\u201d Breaking news from NPR<\/p>\n

(By Daven Morrison, MD) Trying to solve a recent terrorist act (when Syed Rizwan Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2), investigators have been stumped by an inability to access the records of a captured cell phone of one of the terrorists. This was a problem in this case up until this week.<\/p>\n

This case, although the technical problem has resolved, has surfaced several problems: the challenge of privacy; \u201cback door\u201d methods to bypass privacy; the needs of government to enforce the law and prevent crime; and the need for those who sell technology solutions to provide privacy protection for customers.<\/p>\n

Apple and the FBI escalated the rhetoric as things got heated around core values of American Democracy: privacy and security. In an article outlining the final legal salvos before the case heads to court, Apple claimed a distortion of the law forcing a private entity to release would be a \u201cCancer\u201d that would jeopardize privacy for everyone. \u00a0\u201cThe Founders would be appalled,\u201d wrote the company (not realizing that George Washington was the first U.S. spymaster who ran extensive intelligence operations!).<\/p>\n

In response, the FBI countered with claims of Apple overblowing the request and the threat. They see the request as targeted and modest.\u00a0 And probably not unreasonable, given the fact that private entities (banks, car rental companies, etc.) have been relaying information for criminal investigations for years.\u00a0 Both sides rallied advocates to their cause before the FBI found, through a third party, access to the phone\u2019s files and records.<\/p>\n

To a man with a hammer the whole world is a nail.<\/p>\n

Mark Twain<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What if we determined the passwords from the cell phone owners\u2014using their personal psychological profiles \u2013 rather than creating a security disabling code?<\/p>\n

The FBI request was simple: \u201cApple, break into this phone so we can see what leads follow from this known radicalized (and murderous) terrorist.\u201d Apple\u2019s reply: \u201c\u2019No way;\u2019 it is a slippery slope and the creation of the software would allow all customers\u2019 collective privacy to be at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the perspective of our team, The Behavioral Forensics Group<\/i>, we believe there is another way: study the person and unlock the phone through understanding him. Psychological profiles and \u201csocial engineering\u201d have been continuously refined for centuries. Knowing the triggers (what is personally valued) for access is very valuable to fraudsters. But this knowledge has also been used for good.<\/p>\n

The CIA has used long distance psychological profiling for over a half century to provide security from rogue states and despots. Frank Abagnale, the main character who creatively commits fraud in the movie \u201cCatch Me,\u201d was converted to an FBI resource because he understands the counterfeiter\u2019s mind. Sam Antar, who committed virtually all major forms of financial fraud, informed us of the importance of psychology and the critical nature of the mind in countering fraud as we were writing the book. \u00a0He shared:<\/p>\n