There is an extremely important discussion happening right now around Apple, privacy, “back-doors”, terrorism, hacking and encryption. If you’re not tuned in, there are countless folks chiming in from across the technology industry in support of Apple.
Summary of the Issue
From Bloomberg
A federal judge ordered Apple Inc. to help the U.S. Justice Department unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in Decembers terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. Federal investigators havent been able to unlock the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, who carried out a Dec. 2 shooting that killed 14 people at a holiday party, the government said in a filing in federal court in Riverside, California. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym on Tuesday ordered Apple to provide reasonable technical assistance to the FBI to recover information from the phone
Farook was using an iPhone 5c owned by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health with an iOS 9 operating system. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, were killed in a gun battle with police after the attack on his co-workers. The Justice Department wants Apple to provide customized software that will prevent the data on the phone from being deleted after 10 attempts to input the passcode. The software also must enable agents to send electronic passcodes to the phone, rather than manually typing them in, according to the application. The software will allow agents to automatically enter multiple passcodes to get around the encryption standards.
Apple’s Statement
From Apple:
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.
This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake…
Further Reading Links
- Summary & Analysis by Ben Thompson
- Google’s CEO
- Microsoft President & Chief Legal Officer
- WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum
- ACLU Statement
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Statement and blog post from October
- TechCrunch - “Why Apple Is Fighting Not To Unlock iPhones For The Government”
- Macworld - “Why the FBI’s request to Apple will affect civil rights for a generation”
- BuzzFeed - “‘Apple chose to protect a dead ISIS terrorists privacy over the security of the American people,’ Sen. Tom Cotton says, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein vows to introduce a bill to force Apple to comply with a court order giving the FBI access to the San Bernardino shooters phone.”
- Edward Snowden
- Conversation on the ability to hack the iPhone’s security as it stands
- Thoughts on Apple’s Position by John Gruber