Apple protests FBI iPhone backdoor order in open letter: government is asking us to 'hack our own users'
An unprecedented order by a federal judge, forcing Apple to decrypt the iPhone 5c of the San Bernadino shooter, will force the company to break its system encryption and compromise the security of millions of users.
Apple has now fired back at the judicial system with a formal open letter, where chief executive Tim Cook explains that with this order Apple will be required to create a backdoor for the built-in encryption in the iPhone.
The government is asking Apple to hack its own users
Cook warns that this order will have far greater implications than just that one case: it will put at risk the security of millions of users. What the government has requested is essentially "the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes," as Cook explained.The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
source: Apple
Story timeline
This story is part of:
Apple vs FBI: the San Bernardino case (19 updates)-
14 March Why does Apple need encryption? John Oliver explains
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13 March Florida sheriff says he would put Tim Cook in jail if Apple were to refuse to open an iPhone for him
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12 March Obama: We need to stop fetishizing our phones
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12 March Government threatens to force Apple to turn over iOS source code if it won't unlock Farook's iPhone
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10 March Justice Department files "hostile" response to Apple's last brief
