The FBI is demanding that Apple create software to help it break into the phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters.
Advertisement
While Apple has been helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the iPhone since January, it is contesting the court order because of the precedent it would set.
The government is asking Apple to help in unlocking some of its iPhones across the nation along with the one, used by a gunman at the San Bernardino, California, attack in December. In the documents, the Department of Justice says the list is correct – and adds that it found “at least one additional All Writs Act order” for unlocking an iPhone.
“This (master key) is not something we would create”, Cook said.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, responded to the orders with a public letter on the company’s website last week, and followed up on Monday with a question and answer blog post explaining Apple’s position on the matter. Wednesday, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a prominent First Amendment lawyer who is a lead attorney for Apple in the case, told The Associated Press that the company will tell the judge that the issue should be decided by Congress, not by the courts. He did clarify, however, that Apple is just waiting for a high court to “make clear what they should do”. In contrast to the San Bernardino case, numerous cases listed by Apple and the Justice Department appear to involve iPhones using an older Apple operating system, which has fewer security barriers to surmount. “It would also set a precedent that I think many people in America would be offended by”, Cook says. The cases have been brought across the country, including in California, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and IL.
The FBI wants Apple to create software that will disable a security feature that prevents hackers from repeatedly testing different passwords on the phone.
Federal prosecutors, however, contend that Apple is “misleading” the judge, according to the government’s filing this week in response to Apple’s letter.
Whereas the leaders at Google and WhatsApp have come out in full-throated support of Apple, Microsoft’s head, Satya Nadella, has remained quiet.
Advertisement
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he is “sympathetic” with Apple’s quandary and other tech firms have offered guarded support. But while the data backed up on Apple’s iCloud service is readily accessible by the company, it has made the security on the iPhone itself increasingly hard to crack.
