Apple to Fight Order to Help FBI Unlock Shooter’s Phone

Courtesy: Kārlis Dambrāns

By Lyndsay Monsen 2/17/2016

The FBI wants to hack into one of the San Bernadino shooters’ iPhones, but Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says that his company refuses to help.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym had ordered Apple to help the FBI break into Syed Farook’s iPhone. He and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people on Dec. 2, and following died in a gun battle with police.

Cook, however, said that helping the FBI hack into this phone could potentially undermine encryption for millions of other users. This may spark a legal fight between Silicon Valley and the federal government with broad implications for digital privacy and national security.

The Obama administration has been struggling to fight this issue: they embrace stronger encryption as a way to keep consumers safe on the Internet, but have been struggling to find a compelling example to make their case.

GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has weighed in on this issues. In an interview with Fox and Friends Wednesday morning, he said “I agree 100% with the courts. In that case, we should open it up. I think security over all-we have to open it up, and we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense.”

He dismissed the argument made by Apple that this would open the door to the government accessing other encrypted phones.

This hack, if completed, would hopefully piece together a missing 18 minutes in Farook and Malik’s timeline from that day. Malik posted something to his Facebook page around the time of the attack pledging his allegiance to ISIS’ leader.