Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc recently made a statement that the company would try to resist the order issues by a federal judge to access the hidden encrypted data on the cell phone that belonged to a terrorist who was involved in killing 14 people the previous year in San Bernardino. The statement released by the company clearly stated that the move would create a backdoor which could be used on other devices in the future and would undermine encryption.
The CEO, Tim Cook said that the software which doesn’t exist today may end up in wrong hands in the future and could unlock any iPhone. The judge ordered the company to help in accessing the encrypted data as this was posing to be a barrier in the investigation of the deadliest terror attack. Sheri Pym, the U.S Magistrate Judge has directed the company to cooperate with the FBI and help with the pass code protection and also help in auto-erasing the functions that the cell might be employing.
The government has faced issues with the investigation as it hasn’t been able to access the encrypted content of the iPhone. Apple has all the technical details that can make the search easier. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO has backed Apple’s battle with the FBI. He said that his company believes in cooperating with the law enforcement agencies and has also abided by the order to permit access to data based on several legal orders in the past. However, the demand that he tech companies make hacking customer data and devices possible is an entirely different issue and can create a lot of trouble in the future.
Pichai further states that intelligence agencies and law enforcement face a lot of challenges in offering protection to the public against terrorism and crime. However, forcing tech companies to make hacking possible can seriously compromise with the privacy of the users. Recently, there have been proposals about prohibiting the sale of cell phones that come with encryption powers which poses problems in accessing information during criminal investigations. This proposal is entirely a bad idea and any kind of backdoor on secure devices would make the entire world a “not-so-safe” to place to live in.
Backdoor activities do not promise security on devices. Criminals can quickly learn how to exploit the backdoor and misuse the information. There are chances that the data can be accessed by many for unauthorized purposes. Apple and many tech companies are opposing the orders issued by the judge and are trying to work out some other way to come up with a solution to the existing problem.