14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said in a new interview today that building a backdoor to help the FBI hack the San Bernardino iPhone is the “software equivalent of cancer” and warned once again that such a solution could lead to additional risks for US customers.
Cook told ABC News that building software that could allow the feds to break into an iPhone might actually be the first step in a series of hacks that could be ordered by the court, emphasizing once again that setting a precedent with this case might also expose other devices should they be involved in similar criminal activities.
“The only way to get information - at least currently, the only way we know - would be to write a piece of software that we view as sort of the equivalent of cancer. We think it's bad news to write. We would never write it. We have never written it - and that is what is at stake here. We believe that is a very dangerous operating system,” Tim Cook explained.
Cook: we might not find anything on that iPhone
“If a court can ask us to write this piece of software, think about what else they could ask us to write - maybe it's an operating system for surveillance, maybe the ability for the law enforcement to turn on the camera. I don't know where this stops. But I do know that this is not what should be happening in this country.”
Tim Cook then went on to explain that Apple had already worked with the FBI in this case and provided all the information they had without breaking into the phone.
Furthermore, Apple’s CEO reminded that while the FBI wants his company to help hack the iPhone and sees this as the ultimate solution in this case, there’s still no guarantee that, once the device is unlocked, investigators will find any terrorist information inside.
According to people close to the matter, Apple is already working on a legal response in this case, and at the same time, the company is also planning to build an iPhone that would be impossible to hack and prevent similar demands from the government.