Apple chief Tim Cook has rejected a judge's order to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by an attacker in the San Bernardino shooting, warning it was "too dangerous" to create such a backdoor to the smartphone.
Apple has announced it plans to oppose an order from a U.S. judge to help the FBI access data on a phone belonging to San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.
“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a statement. “We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.”
The FBI hope to gain access to an iPhone that belonged to Farook, one of the two shooters that killed 14 people – including one gay man – in San Bernardino last December. Farook acted with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to carry out the horrendous attack.
Cook’s statement comes after U.S. District Judge Sheri Pym said that Apple must provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI in accessing Farook’s iPhone.
- Specifically, they want Apple to remove the system that deletes the phone’s data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts, and create software to rapidly try different passcode combinations.
“The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone,” Cook wrote. “In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.”
The CEO goes on to argue that not only would creating the software put users at risk in case it ever got into the hands of criminals, but that he’d rather the U.S. government didn’t have access to it either.
“The implications of the government’s demands are chilling,” he said. “If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data.
The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”
-->"We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack," Apple said."The implications of the government's demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data."
-- >Cook also warned that if Apple complied with the order, the government could demand surveillance software to intercept, access health and financial data, track users' location or access a phone's microphone or camera without the user's knowledge.
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