EncryptionApple refuses to comply with court order to help FBI investigate San Bernardino terrorists
Apple’s encryption technology has placed the company at the heart t of the privacy vs national security debate, as the company said it would defy a court order which requires to company to help investigate the San Bernardino attack by helping the FBI crack the code of an iPhone , Syed Rizwan Farook, one of terrorists, used. The U.S. government, stunned by Apple’s refusal to help in investigating a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, persuaded a court to issue on order compelling Apple to cooperate in the investigation.
In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, Apple has been offering its customers devices equipped with end-to-end encryption. This encryption offers customers a shield from the prying eyes of the NSA and other snoopers – but it also offers terrorists and criminals the luxury no terrorist or criminal had ever enjoyed before: the ability to communicate, plan, plot, and coordinate their nefarious deeds with complete immunity.
These terrorists and criminals can now be secure not only in the knowledge that the government and its security agencies are no longer in a position to spot, say, a terrorist attack being hatched and intervene to prevent it: government agencies are no longer able to examine the terrorists’ phone after the terrorists have been killed, thus making it impossible for law enforcement to learn who else was in on the plot, who are the members of the terrorist cell or support network behind the attack that has already taken place, and what other terrorist attacks members of this network are planning.
Terrorists in three recent terrorists attacks demonstrated how Apple’s encryption technology makes it impossible for law enforcement to learn ahead of time about the plots being hatched – and also makes it impossible for law enforcement, after the attacks had already taken place, to learn more about the planners of the attacks, those who carried them out, and those who supported the perpetrators.
The three terrorists attacks are the attack on the Mohammed art show in Garland, Texas, in May 2015; the 13 November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris; and the 4 December terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.
The New York Times reports that Apple’s encryption technology has placed the company at the heart t of the privacy vs national security debate, as the company said it would defy a court order which requires to company to help investigate the San Bernardino attack by helping the FBI crack the code of an iPhone , Syed Rizwan Farook, one of terrorists, used.
The U.S. government, stunned by Apple’s refusal to help in investigating a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, persuaded a court to issue on order compelling Apple to cooperate in the investigation.
Apple issues a statement saying it would refuse to comply with the court order, arguing that the court was asking the company to create a “back door” into the company’s devices which are equipped with end-to-end encryption.
