Apple is working on hardening the security in its next-generation phones to make them almost impossible for the federal government to crack, upping the ante in the company’s showdown with the FBI.
CEO Tim Cook has vowed that Apple will fight a court order requiring the company to disable functions on a dead terrorist’s iPhone that impose delays if someone tries too many passwords. The FBI wants to use software to try every possible password combination until it finds the right one, thus decrypting the contents of the device left behind after the December attack that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. Apple says creating such a tool would set a dangerous precedent.
Even if Apple loses its fight against the court order, it is working on ways to build new phones so that the FBI’s technique no longer works, according to a report in the New York Times. One way that this could be done is by requiring the passcode to be known even before an operating system update—such as the one the FBI is requesting—could be implemented.
A compromise is likely not going to happen. Good for Apple. They need to dig in their heels. To read more, click here.