TIM COOK: FBI Asked Us to Creat BACKDOOR to iPhone

Tim Cook: Apple Won’t Create “Backdoor” To Unlock San Bernardino Attacker’s iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that the company will appeal a California judge’s order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino shooting.

The device in question — an iPhone 5c — belonged to Syed Farook, who, alongside his wife, carried out a mass shooting during a training event at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, where he worked. Farook and his wife were later killed by police in a shootout.

Authorities want access to data on the phone and are seeking Apple’s help to crack the passcode (PDF) by creating software which, when loaded onto the device, will circumvent the security system. That’s because, beyond the passcode itself, Apple’s security measures include an ‘auto-erase function’ which, if activated by a user, will erase all data on a device if the passcode is entered incorrectly 10 times. In the case, the FBI would lose the data.

In a letter to Apple customers, Cook said Apple has provided “data that’s in our possession” but it will not develop a “backdoor” for its software.

We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now 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.

Specifically, 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.

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 backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.




[link to techcrunch.com]

This comes just hours after an US magistrate judge in California directs Apple to help FBI break into cell phone of San Bernardino gunman, AP reports.

In other words they have always had built in backdoors.

They just want us to think they dont.

While I would lean towards saying yes, regardless, read the quotes straight from Tim Cook in the article.

If Apple takes a stand here, and continues to hold it's position on this matter it matters not that the backdoors already exist. We know they do.

But the fact that a company as big as Apple is taking a stance AGAINST the FBI and NSA publicly is a good thing. It will be interesting to see what backlash Apple feels from this. I'll be watching their stocks this week.

I hate Apple. Even though this is PR, it's PR that we can only hope provokes other large companies to start standing up in our favor. In the name of our civil liberties.