John McAfee is the creator of McAfee security software and is one of the foremost cyber security experts in the world. I spoke to him by Skype, and he says this fight is really over encryption as a whole.
“The problem is that once you put a backdoor into a piece of software, every hacker in the world is going to find it and use it, and [then] we’re in a world of hurt,” he says.
McAfee says that if the FBI is telling the truth about their intentions and they really need to get into just this one, then he and his team of hackers have agreed to hack that San Bernardino shooter’s phone for the FBI for free. And he says they can do it in less than three weeks.
“But what I have done is said, look, you know, if in fact you are sincere in wanting to get access to just that one phone, my team and I will do it,” he says. “We can crack it—easily. I guarantee it. There is no un-crackable encryption. We all know that.
“They have not responded [to my offer] and I do not think they will because it’s not just that one phone they want. They want a key to everyone’s phone.”
McAfee does say there is a bigger issue at hand, because what the FBI and the federal government is actually doing here is a move that will destroy encryption. In an op-ed he writes, “After years of arguments by virtually every industry specialist that back doors will be a bigger boon to hackers and to our nation’s enemies than publishing our nuclear codes.”
“We all say the same thing,” McAfee says. “You can’t do it and keep us safe as a nation. . . . And you can’t do it and keep us safe as individuals. ‘Cause I guarantee that once that backdoor goes in, all of our bank accounts are going to be emptied by the the bad hackers. All of our social security numbers are going to be known.”
Read the rest here...