Tim Cook, Apple CEO
The US government Friday sought a court order to force Apple to help unlock an iPhone as part of the probe into last year’s San Bernardino attacks, escalating a legal showdown over encryption.
Apple Inc, Chief Executive, Tim Cook opposed a demand from US judge to help the FBI break into an iPhone recovered from one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The motion brought by the Justice Department sought to counter Apple’s claim that cooperating with the FBI probe would undermine overall security for its devices, and laid out the legal case for technical assistance.
“The order does not, as Apple’s public statement alleges, require Apple to create or provide a ‘back door’ to every iPhone,” said the motion filed in a federal court in California.
“It does not provide ‘hackers and criminals’ access to iPhones; it does not require Apple to ‘hack (its) own users’ or to ‘decrypt’ its own phones.”
The filing comes after Apple pledged earlier this week to fight a magistrate’s order to assist in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December attacks, which have sharpened the public debate over encryption.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook took a public stand against the request, arguing that it could pave the way for ill-intentioned individuals to unlock any iPhone and raised major privacy concerns.
There was no immediate response by Apple to the latest court filing.
Victims of San Bernardino shooting hung during a memorial
– ‘Marketing concerns’ –
The new motion said that Apple’s public statements suggest it is basing its defense on “marketing concerns” and that the company was not being asked to hand over any sensitive software that could be used by hackers.
“Apple did not assert that it lacks the technical capability” to help, the motion said, but is refusing in part because of “a perceived negative …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
