Tech Giant Apple Slams FBI's San Bernardino Data Order as 'Dangerous Precedent'

By teleSUR

17 February 16

"The implications of the government’s demands are chilling," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

he CEO of tech giant Apple has strongly condemned the federal government’s attempts to access secure information on the phones of the San Bernardino shooting suspects, calling the request “unprecedented,” “dangerous,” and “chilling.”

“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand,” a statement released by the CEO Tim Cook said early Wednesday morning.

Apple said it would contest the court order that directed the company to help FBI officials access information on San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook's phone.

Specifically the FBI wants Apple to help them conduct what is known as a "brute force" attack, wherein every combination of passcodes is attempted until the correct one is found.

However, the company's devices lock out users if too many attempts are made. The FBI wants that feature disabled.

The tech company added that even if they wanted to access the contents of the phone they could not do so as the information if encrypted by default.

"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 ... this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession." read the statement from Apple.

A “backdoor” references the ability to access a phone’s contents without prior knowledge of the passcode.

The statement added that contrary to government claims, once a "backdoor" is created it could be used repeatedly.

The FBI’s request, grounded in a law from the 18th century, is so unprecedented that the company went so far as to call for a public discussion around privacy rights.

"Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government," said Cook in his statement.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that Apple must provide "reasonable technical assistance" to investigators. However in her decision, Pym said the company had five business days to contest the order if it believes compliance would be "unreasonably burdensome."

Governments face greater scrutiny over their abilities to spy on user devices since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the lengths the U.S. government had gone to collect data on millions of people.