IStonewalled
Apple memo zaps FBI over unlock demand
TIM COOK is refusing to back down to the FBI.
Mere hours after FBI Director James Comey’s open letter demanding access to the San Bernardino shooter’s locked phone, Apple’s CEO sent an internal memo thanking employees for their support and explaining the company’s reasons for challenging the FBI’s court order.
The memo, first reported by Buzz-Feed News, said Apple won’t back down in its resistance because doing so would set a “dangerous precedent that threatens everyone’s civil liberties.”
Cook also wants the problem to be debated by a panel of experts.
“We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy and personal freedoms,” Cook wrote.
Comey insisted Apple should comply with its demand to access a locked iPhone. Otherwise, he said, in- vestigators will fail survivors of last year’s deadly terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
Apple says it doesn’t have the ability to unlock Syed Farook’s locked iPhone 5C, and coming up with a way to hack into it could open the door for others to do the same.
It's unclear if any evidence exists on Farook’s work phone left behind after the San Bernardino County food inspector orchestrated an ISIS-inspired attack with his wife, Tasheen Malik, on Dec. 2.
The couple’s mass attack killed 14 people and wounded 22 others, some of whom are filing a legal brief supporting the FBI’s effort against Apple.
“We owe them a thorough and professional investigation under law,” wrote Comey, defending the FBI’s request in an open letter posted to the Lawfare blog Sunday night.