The tech giant Apple has won the support of other businesses, security experts, and the United Nations in its attempt to stop the FBI getting hold of encrypted information held on the phone of Syed Farook, the San Bernardino gunman.
A filing from a group of 15 computing companies, including Google and Microsoft, urged judge Sheri Pym to stop authorities from ordering Apple to create an app that would override passwords on Farook’s iPhone.
The FBI has so far been unable to crack the codes, but was able to get a court ruling ordering Apple to create an app to unlock the iPhone 5c. Apple is challenging the ruling before a court in California.
The tech group’s statement said: “The government’s position, if it prevails, will undermine the security of America’s most sensitive data.
“The law does not allow federal agents to conscript companies into defeating their own security safeguards and product designs.”
Advertisement
The FBI hopes the iPhone will contain information that could provide further background into the atrocity, in which 14 people were killed and 22 seriously injured when Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, went on the rampage at a training event at the southern Californian city’s inland regional centre on December 2.
David Kaye, the United Nations special freedom of expression reporter, said that the matter could have implications for free speech.
“My concern is that the [order] implicates the security, and thus the freedom of expression, of unknown but likely vast numbers of people,” he said.
“This is fundamentally a problem of technology, one where compromising security for one and only one time and purpose seems exceedingly difficult if not impossible.”
Security experts also warned that the government request could end up being exploited by hackers.
Advertisement
A brief co-written by the computer scientist Dan Boneh, cryptologist Bruce Schneier and researcher Jonathan Zdziarski argued that the tool would probably be used on other iPhones.
“This spread increases the risk that the forensic software will escape Apple’s control either through theft, embezzlement, or order of another court, including a foreign government,” it said.
But another brief, filed by relatives of some of Farook’s 14 victims, argued that Apple was being “disingenuous”.
Included in the file was a letter from Mark Sandefur, whose son Larry Daniel Kaufman was killed in the attack, to the Apple CEO Tim Cook, in which he said that hacking Farook’s phone could help to save lives.
Mr Sandefur brought up reports that there had been a third gunman who helped Farook and Malik with the attacks.
Advertisement
It said: “Recovery of information from the iPhone in question may not lead to anything new, but what if there is evidence pointing to a third shooter?
“What if it leads to an unknown terrorist cell? What if others are attacked and you and I did nothing to prevent it?”
Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, both of whom were killed in a shootout with police, were found to have links to the Islamic State terrorist group.