“The FBI’s effort to force Apple to help unlock one of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhones would weaken security for all devices, the company’s top lawyer will tell lawmakers on Tuesday,” Katie Bo Williams reports for The Hill. “‘We can all agree this is not about access to just one iPhone,’ Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell says in written testimony to be given to the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing on encryption.”
“‘Should the FBI have the right to compel a company to produce a product it doesn’t already make, to the FBI’s exact specifications and for the FBI’s use?’ Sewell argues in his testimony,” Williams reports. “FBI Director James Comey, who will also testify before a separate Judiciary panel on Tuesday, argues that the request is tailored only for shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s device… But he also acknowledged that a decision in the case could be ‘instructive’ for other courts, a subtle shift from an earlier position that it was ‘not about setting a precedent.'”
“Sewell references Comey’s shift in his own testimony,” Williams reports. “‘Just last week Director Comey agreed that the FBI would likely use this precedent in other cases involving other phones,” his testimony says. “[Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance] has also said he would absolutely plan to use this on over 175 phones… Building that software tool would not affect just one iPhone. It would weaken the security for all of them.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course it would weaken security for all iPhones.
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