Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a post on the company's website that Apple had already cooperated with the FBI on the case, providing requested data, complying with warrants and subpoenas and making its engineers available to help investigate mobile devices possibly used by the suspects. However, the company has drawn the line at a request from the FBI to make a new version of the iPhone operating system that would circumvent several important security features, Cook said. This would be installed on an iPhone found during the investigation in an attempt to recover further information.
Cook said such a 'backdoor' does not exist today, and the company is concerned that if created, such software could fall into the wrong hands. The existence of such a passcode to the iOS encryption system would expose all Apple's customers to potential security risks and privacy invasion.
The implications of the FBI's request, which is based on "unprecedented" use of the All Writs Act of 1789, are "chilling" and extend well beyond Apple's own business, Cook said. "If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data," he said. "The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge."
Cook added that Apple did not take opposing the FBI order lightly, but felt it "must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the US government". The CEO's statement follows an order from a federal court in California 16 February for the company to provide technical assistance to the FBI in the case. That assistance should include helping the FBI over-ride the PIN code system on the iPhone, which locks the device automatically after multiple attempts entering the wrong PIN.
Apple's stance received the support of others in the tech industry. Google CEO Sundar Pichai agreed that complying with the FBI's request to hack into a device would set a "troubling precedent", according to a tweet from the executive. The group Reform Government Surveillance, a coalition including Apple, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other companies, also issued a statement saying that technology companies shouldn't be required to build back doors into their products. While the companies would help law enforcement, they would not risk the security of their customers and information in the process.
