employees this week that “it does not feel right”
to refuse to help the FBI hack a locked iPhone
used by a gunman in the San Bernardino
mass shootings. But he said that to do so
would threaten data security for millions and
“everyone’s civil liberties.”
“We have no tolerance or sympathy for
terrorists,” Cook wrote in an early morning
email addressed to the Apple “Team.” ‘’When
they commit unspeakable acts like the tragic
attacks in San Bernardino, we work to help the
authorities pursue justice for the victims.”
But he reiterated the company’s position that to
hack the San Bernardino gunman’s phone would
ultimately risk “security of hundreds of millions
of law-abiding people.”
Cook’s email came just hours after FBI director
James Comey said in an online post that
Apple owes it to the San Bernardino victims to
cooperate and said the dispute wasn’t about
creating legal precedent.
The FBI “can’t look the survivors in the eye, or
ourselves in the mirror, if we don’t follow this
lead,” Comey said.
The iPhone used by Syed Farook, who along
with his wife killed 14 people in the Dec. 2
rampage, was locked. At the government’s
request, a Federal magistrate judge has ordered
Apple to help the FBI hack into the passwordprotected
phone.
The case has sparked nationwide debate over
digital privacy and national security. Apple, in its
message to employees, appeared to be sensitive
to criticism that the company is simply trying to
protect its proprietary business.
“Apple is a uniquely American company,”
Cook wrote. “It does not feel right to be on
the opposite side of the government in a case
centering on the freedoms and liberties that
government is meant to protect.” But he said,
“this case is about much more than a single
phone or a single investigation, so when we
received the government’s order we knew we
had to speak out.”
Comey, in a statement posted on the Lawfare
blog, sought to defend the FBI demand for
access to the iPhone as well as counter Apple’s
arguments that the request risks threatening
the digital privacy of Apple customers all over
the world.
“We simply want the chance, with a search
warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s passcode
without the phone essentially self-destructing
and without it taking a decade to guess
correctly. That’s it,” Comey wrote in a fourparagraph
statement. “We don’t want to break
anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on
the land.”
Cook’s message to employees had “Thank you
for your support,” in the subject line. He told
employees that the company believes abiding
by the judge’s order would set a dangerous
precedent that would essentially create a
backdoor to the encrypted iPhone. That would
set “a dangerous precedent that threatens
everyone’s civil liberties,” he said.
An accompanying question-and-answer posting
for customers acknowledges that while it is
technically possible for Apple to do what the
judge ordered, that it’s “something we believe is
too dangerous to do.”
Apple also points to the difficulty of keeping
such a “master key” safe once it has been
created. The government has said that Apple
could keep the specialized technology it
would create to help officials hack the phone -
bypassing a security time delay and feature that
erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful
attempts to guess the unlocking passcode. This
would allow the FBI to use technology to rapidly
and repeatedly test numbers.
Cook said that if the company’s engineers
were to do as ordered, Apple would do its
best to protect the technology, but that the
company “would be relentlessly attacked by
hackers and cybercriminals.”
“The only way to guarantee such a powerful
tool isn’t abused and doesn’t fall into the wrong
hands is to never create it,” Apple said. The
company has until Friday to formally protest the
ruling in court.
The case would not have existed if the county
government that owned the iPhone had
installed a feature on it that would have allowed
the FBI to easily and immediately unlock the
phone. San Bernardino County had bought
the technology, known as mobile device
management from MobileIron Inc., but never
installed it on any of the inspectors’ phones,
including Farook’s, said county spokesman
David Wert said.
There is no countywide policy on the matter and
departments make their own decisions, he said.
The service costs $4 per month per phone.
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