“The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.” Point taken. So create the technology, get the contents of this criminal murderer’s phone, give it to the FBI, and destroy the technology.
“Apple: We won’t hack San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone,” by Beau Yarbrough, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, February 17, 2016:
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook has blasted a federal magistrate’s order to hack into the work iPhone of Syed Farook, one of two people responsible for the Dec. 2 terrorist attack on the Inland Regional Center, saying the order endangers privacy for millions of customers.
“People use (smartphones) to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going,” Cook’s open letter, posted on Apple’s website Wednesday morning, reads in part.
“For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.”
Federal officials have been able to access information on some phones apparently left behind by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, including one that reportedly held pictures of the parking garage and entrances and exits of Carter High School in Rialto. Carter’s cafeteria was one of the sites inspected by Farook as part of his duties as a San Bernardino County health inspector.
But officials have been stymied trying to get into Farook’s primary cell phone.
Apple was “shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December,” Cook wrote, adding his company has complied with other federal requests related to the investigation.
“When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal,” he wrote.
But what U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ordered Apple to do Tuesday is something else entirely, according to Cook.
“The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession,” Cook wrote.
“The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a back door. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have both come out in support of Apple’s stance.
“If the FBI can force Apple to hack into its customers’ devices, then so too can every repressive regime in the rest of the world,” Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in an ACLU statement. “Apple deserves praise for standing up for its right to offer secure devices to all of its customers.”…