In the last couple weeks, Apple has been in a legal battle with the FBI. The court battle has turned into a controversy, with many different companies picking sides on the issue. The argument is over one of the San Bernardino terrorists’ iPhone 5C. On December 2nd, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people, and left 22 injured, during an attack on the Inland Regional Center. The FBI, during the last couple of months, has been trying to decrypt Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5C. Unable to break the complicated security features on the iPhone, the FBI looked to Apple for its help to break the code of Syed Rizwan Farook’s phone. Apple however, has refused, going against a judicial order to comply. How exactly is Apple expected to break into Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone? The FBI wants Apple to make a special new operating system that bypasses the Iphone’s security features. This new operating system would disable the removal of data after 10 failed password attempts, effectively allowing a computer to find the password by running millions of different combinations.
The FBI would then be able to access all the data that may reside in the IPhone, and possibly gain more information about the attack. In Apple’s letter to its customers regarding the issue, they claim, “Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor.” By making a back-door, the FBI will be able to search and possibly find clues pertaining to the San Bernardino Attack. The creation of such a code brings up arguments of cybersecurity. Apple warns that this operating system could be stolen, and the data of millions of IPhones would be put in jeopardy. Apple argues that this data, containing our text messages, financial data, health records, and location, could be stolen if a hacker accessed this operating system.
The legal battle between the FBI and Apple has became extremely controversial. Junior R.J. Goldberg has weighed in on the issue. When asked his opinion on the issue, he stated “As an apple customer, I appreciate that they are in the best interest of my privacy. But, in the case of Syed Rizwan Farook, I believe that Apple should help bypass the passcode screen and let the FBI access information in the terrorist’s phone. This seems to be in the best interest of Americans, and the FBI, they only mean well.” On a large scale, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has weighed in on the issue. Bill Gates has stated that companies should be forced to comply with the government’s demands in terrorist cases. The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, has sided with Apple in the issue. In a string of twitter posts, Sundar Pichai has stated that such an order would compromise user privacy.
Also siding with Apple, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has stated that Facebook is “sympathetic with Apple on this one.” Presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a boycott of Apple products in a campaign speech on January 20th. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders however have not taking sides on the issue. A court hearing on March 22nd will help decide this case, but the battle between Apple and the FBI is bound to continue.
