Court Grants Apple Extra Time to Help Hack San Bernardino Attacker’s Phone

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey wrote in a tweet Thursday afternoon.

He announced the company’s decision to fight the order, and was joined today by Sundar Pichai, the new CEO of Google.

Cook likened the federal order to creating a “master key” that could be used to unlock any number of other iPhones in use around the globe. On Tuesday, he posted a 1,117-word open letter arguing that the FBI’s request might have implications “far beyond the legal case at hand”.

Faster to react than Twitter and Facebook were Facebook-owned WhatsApp, Mozilla, and Google, who all backed Apple’s stance.

The pejorative term, describing a behind-the-scenes method hackers use to gain unauthorized access, has for years colored the discussion of how the government can obtain protected information or eavesdrop on encrypted communications from criminals or terrorists. Several companies have recently heeded the administration’s request for voluntary efforts aimed at countering terrorist postings on social media.

A judge ordered Apple to unlock a San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. The major concern from the tech companies is that if Apple buckles to the courts then it will have to do so every time a similar order is made. Marco Rubio acknowledged Wednesday night the issue is complex and said Silicon Valley needs to figure out a way for access to information in emergency circumstances such as preventing a terrorist attack.

Apple could especially benefit in the enormous China market, Feland said, where the company is in fierce competition with Xiaomi and Huawei, two Chinese cell phone manufacturers. Officials can not guess the passcode repeatedly because the phone’s security protections will delete all data after too many failed attempts. “The government can not bully private companies”.

Team Apple or Team FBI?

“There’s going to have to be a serious coming together between the tech industry and the USA government to kind of figure out a way forward on this new challenge that we now face with encryption”, Rubio told CNN. “Now you need to help us defeat the code”, Cattanach says. Apple calls this government overreach and is preparing for a fight. Some people are claiming that giving in to law enforcement’s demands would be a crippling blow to the privacy of US citizens. How would customers in other countries react to the idea of having their data potentially obtained by the US government? It would be a technique for opening the phone over which Apple would retain sole control, subject to court order. Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who kicked off the privacy debate, came out in defense of Apple Wednesday.

Past experience suggests that being perceived as willing to cooperate with the US government may be bad for business in China, which accounts for a quarter of Apple’s sales and has driven its growth.