Tim Cook hits back at 'chilling' FBI request for iPhone 'backdoor'

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Tim Cook hits back at 'chilling' FBI request for iPhone 'backdoor' - CNET

Tim Cook claims the FBI is "overreaching" with its request to create what he calls a "backdoor" into the iPhone.
CNET

Apple CEO Tim Cook has denounced a federal judge's order to help the FBI crack an iPhone used by a terrorist, calling the situation "chilling."

To hack the phone, the FBI wants Apple to build a new version of the iOS software that Cook claims could potentially open all iPhones.

On Tuesday, a judge ordered Apple to assist the FBI in unlocking an iPhone linked to December's terrorist attack in San Beardino, Califoia. In an open letter posted on the company's website later in the day, Cook was that such a version of iOS would create a "backdoor" into all of Apple's encrypted devices and would "undermine the very freedoms and liberty our govement is meant to protect."

"The US govement 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 said.

Encryption is a huge source of tension between technology companies and law enforcement. Companies such as Apple, Google and WhatsApp protect the privacy of their customers by encrypting data, often in a way that even the companies themselves cannot unscramble. Although that allows unscrupulous users such as criminals or terrorists to communicate without govement surveillance, tech companies justify such security measures by insisting that it's impossible to allow law enforcement to crack encryption without opening the door for criminals themselves to do the same.

The FBI's plan would bypass security functions that limit how many times you can enter an incorrect password. Currently, an iPhone wipes itself if the wrong password is entered 10 times in a row. With that feature disabled, investigators could simply enter password after password until they hit on the correct one.

The FBI is trying to access an iPhone 5C used by one of the perpetrators of the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Beardino that left 14 people dead and 22 injured.

The govement wants Apple to create software -- what Cook calls a new version of iOS -- that would disable the auto-erase feature. The order specifies that the software should be coded to the specific iPhone in question. Cook doesn't see it stopping there, though.

"Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices," he said. Cook described such software as "the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks."

If Apple is forced to circumvent its own security, this could mark a watershed moment in the ongoing negotiation among govement, the private sector and consumers on the subject of security, privacy and surveillance.

"We mou the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected" by the San Beardino attack," said Cook, "and we have worked hard to support the govement's efforts to solve this horrible crime." But he describes the use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to call for these measures as an "overreach" by the US govement.

"We are challenging the FBI's demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country," Cook concluded. "While we believe the FBI's intentions are good, it would be wrong for the govement to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our govement is meant to protect."

Tim Cook hits back at 'chilling' FBI request for iPhone 'backdoor' - CNET

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Tim Cook hits back at 'chilling' FBI request for iPhone 'backdoor' - CNET

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