Apple’s Cook: Complying with FBI demand ‘bad for America’

This issue of smartphone encryption has been in the news since Apple Inc. refused to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation access locked and encrypted iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two people accused in the recent San Bernardino, Calif., attack. Assuming the case is still unresolved it could go on to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also said he would try to make his case directly to President Barack Obama, although he did not say when or where they would meet.

In a letter unsealed in federal court Tuesday, Apple’s lawyers revealed the company received FBI demands to unlock iPhones in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and NY for devices ranging from iPhone 3s to an iPhone 6 Plus, which has increased security and privacy measures.

“Some things are hard and some things are right, and some things are both. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case”, Gates said as quoted by CNBC. The interview came as both sides in the dispute are courting public support, through interviews and published statements, while also mustering legal arguments in the case.

Mr. Cook’s concerns seem to be warranted because the Department of Justice already has about 12 more cases where it wants to force Apple to bypass iPhone security features so they can brute force attack passcodes.

Previously, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a letter to customers, “Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices”. However he claims that this is “bad news” and he likened it to the software equivalent of cancer.

The software could “expose people to incredible vulnerabilities”, Cook added, arguing that smartphones contain private information about users and even their families.

Cook disputed FBI Director James Comey’s argument that the court order applies to only one phone. And when comparing them to the evidence investigators “might” be able to get from the iPhone, “I think we are making the right choice”, Cook said. “We believe that is a very unsafe operating system”. Instead of siding with Silicon Valley species, Gates instead said that tech companies should be obliged to lend a hand to law enforcement agencies. “I don’t know where this stops”.