Apple supported in the fight against FBI by own employees

Mar 18, 2016 09:24 GMT  ·  By

Apple’s not willing to give up in the fight against the FBI over the hacking of an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino attacks, but even if the feds win the case, it might still be impossible to unlock the device.

The company’s security engineers who worked on creating the security system currently used on the iPhone are ready to quit their jobs should the FBI order them to break into that iPhone. Without their help, it would be impossible to unlock the device, as these employees were the ones who actually built the iPhone encryption system in the first place.

A report by the New York Times reveals that security engineers at Apple are already looking into their options and are preparing for a scenario where they would be forced to hack the iPhone. Thus, some have already expressed their intention of giving up on their jobs at the company and not complying with the FBI’s demands.

Cook says this is opposed to the company’s values

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said from the very beginning that forcing the company’s employees who built the iPhone security system to break into it would be opposed to the firm’s values.

“The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers - including tens of millions of American citizens - from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. 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,” Cook warned.

While this might be another attempt from Apple to show that it’s not giving up on its position in this case, the FBI already has a backup plan too: the DoJ has previously warned that should Apple refuse to unlock the device, it might even request the iOS source code and then have its own security engineers find a way to break into the iPhone.

This, in turn, leads to more legal issues and it’s very unlikely to happen, but it’s very clear that both sides are willing to use all their arsenals to support their case. It remains to be seen who’ll win, but do not expect a decision in this case anytime soon.