Apple Fights 'Chilling' Order to Unlock Shooter's iPhone

Apple will fight a U.S. court order that directs Cupertino to help the FBI break into an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Los Angeles District Court Judge Sheri Pym on Tuesday ruled that Cupertino "shall assist in enabling the search" of an iPhone 5c owned by Syed Rizwan Farook.

The tech titan must provide "reasonable technical assistance," like disabling the auto-erase function that kicks in after 10 failed password attempts. The hope is that the FBI can use "brute force" to crack the code, trying millions of combinations without fear of deleting crucial information. Pym's controversial order does not explicitly ask Apple to break the phone's encryption, but rather to develop and install a new mobile operating system to allow the government access to Farook's data.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has argued in favor of encryption, hit back, calling the request "dangerous," and saying that building a version of iOS to bypass security "would undeniably create a backdoor."

"In the wrong hands, this software—which does not exist today—would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession," Cook wrote in a public letter published to Apple's website. "The implications of the government's demands are chilling," adding that unlocking an iPhone is just the beginning.

Apple started encrypting its mobile OS by default beginning with iOS 8, and Google did the same beginning with Lollipop. The move was in large part a response to the Edward Snowden docs and revelations that the feds were using more invasive technology to spy on citizens than most people thought. As a result, Apple, Google, and other tech companies have pushed back on the government's request for access to people's iPhones and Android devices, prompting criticism from  agencies like the FBI.

"The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers—including tens of millions of American citizens—from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals," Cook's letter said. "The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe."

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Apple is not completely ignoring the FBI, though, Cook said. "When the FBI has requested data that's in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we've offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal," Cook wrote.

States like New York and California have introduced bills that would ban the sale of encrypted devices. Last week, however, two members of Congress introduced a bill that would thwart state efforts to weaken smartphone encryption.