The government has to overcome another glitch in it’s plans compel Apple to hack into a contested iPhone: the engineers who would have to carry out such a task.
With the affair being brought into court, the FBI hopes that the judge will side with them and order the tech giant to break the encryption of a phone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. But even if the court issues such a ruling, they can’t guarantee the cooperation of the people with the necessary expertise to break it.
Indeed, chatter at Apple indicates that the company’s employees are grumbling at the possibility of being forced to hack the iPhone. Some are even going as far to say they will quit their jobs if law enforcement orders them to do such a thing.
Such a development would be another blow to the feds, who have been trying to crack the phone’s security since last November.
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Apple has been resisting the government’s demands to crack the iPhone’s encryption for over a month now, resistance based in no small part on the corporation’s subversive culture cultivated by late founder Steve Jobs. Thus, it’s no surprise that the engineers who work there would share their former boss’s rebellious streak:
“The employees’ concerns also provide insight into a company culture that despite the trappings of Silicon Valley wealth still views the world through the decades-old, anti-establishment prism of its co-founders Steven P. Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
‘It’s an independent culture and a rebellious one,’ said Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist who was once an engineering manager at Apple. ‘If the government tries to compel testimony or action from these engineers, good luck with that.’
Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, last month telegraphed what his employees might do in an email to customers: ‘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,’ Mr. Cook wrote.
Apple declined to comment.
The fear of losing a paycheck may not have much of an impact on security engineers whose skills are in high demand. Indeed, hiring them could be a badge of honor among other tech companies that share Apple’s skepticism of the government’s intentions.
‘If someone attempts to force them to work on something that’s outside their personal values, they can expect to find a position that’s a better fit somewhere else,’ said Window Snyder, the chief security officer at the start-up Fastly and a former senior product manager in Apple’s security and privacy division.
Apple said in court filings last month that it would take from six to 10 engineers up to a month to meet the government’s demands. However, because Apple is so compartmentalized, the challenge of building what the company described as ‘GovtOS’ would be substantially complicated if key employees refused to do the work.”
Source: The New York Times
They do not need Apple…the Government gets what the Government wants one way or another. Someone is getting a big check for cracking it 😉
No don’t do it. The government can figure another way to do it they just want the easy way because they’re f****** lazy and because Obama wants what he wants don’t give it to him. Don’t do it!!!!!!!!
Stand your ground Apple !!!!!
After just one,it will turn into hundreds of thousands….if not millions.
Use google, the court will let FBI use a 3rd party. Damn, this is old
One way to look at this is if Apple doesn’t hack the phone, and someone else does, that person can release the information to the internet and cause Apple a whole heap of trouble.
Apple has had the technical ability to open the iPhone from the time it was built. They just don’t want you to know about it.
They already tried tap the phone and they screwed it up 3 times and it shut them out. Then they couldn’t get back in that’s when they went to Apple. I say screw them. Screw the government let him figure it out another way. If Obama is allowed to get into this phone circuit and information and they learn that where are we? We are no better than anyone else. Then the Chinese will know and everyone else will know and we will be screwed again that is why Apple does what they do and they’re the best at it. They don’t want anybody knowing their secrets especially the government because the government right now with Obama in there is the most Big Brother government there is and ever has been. We the People. No no no don’t let him do it. The court has nothing to say about it. Apple is an independent run company. They gave the government all the information they needed and the government once more. I think Apple has been more than fair.
I don’t think you understand my point.
Somebody already showed them how to hack an I phone on facebook. What, feds didnt pay attention ?