Building unlock tool for FBI could create dangerous international precedent, says Apple lawyer

One of Apple's major concerns about creating a tool to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook is that doing so for the FBI would set a precedent in other countries, a lawyer for the company said on Monday.

"If Apple were willing to do this in this one — this particular case, every other country is going to say, 'Well then you have to do it for us'," Ted Boutrous explained in a TV interview with CNBC. The network suggested that Apple might be worried about a "snowball" effect in countries like the U.K. and China.

Boutros otherwise focused on most of Apple's repeated talking points, including the view that the issue needs to be examined by the U.S. Congress, and that the FBI and Department of Justice are effectively trying to create new law. Courts shouldn't have the authority to demand that companies like Apple build new, "degraded" software, he said.

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell is due to testify in front of a House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. A transcript of his prepared speech has already been published, in which Sewell focuses on the potential for an exploit to be commandeered beyond Farook's phone, including by other domestic law enforcement agencies, despite the FBI's assurances of a limited scope.

Earlier this month, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered apple to build a tool that would allow the FBI to bypass the passcode retry limit on Farook's iPhone 5c. That step is necessary to attempt a brute-force unlock of the device, which is currently set to auto-erase its data once the passcode limit is reached.

Apple has vowed to resist the order as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, although another lawyer for Apple — Ted Olson — recently indicated that Apple will probably cave if it loses there.

26 Comments

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

Can't wait to hear Sewell speak tomorrow. Compared to the crap that Comey and others have been spewing Sewell should come across as nothing less than brilliant.

ceek74 324 comments · 12 Years

If Apple is forced to create the "backdoor", I say Apple should open-source it and level the playing field. This way Comey would have a legacy to be truly proud of.

msantti 1362 comments · 22 Years

ericthehalfbee said:

Can't wait to hear Sewell speak tomorrow. Compared to the crap that Comey and others have been spewing Sewell should come across as nothing less than brilliant.

Wow.

Another story saying basically the same thing.

Corgiking 8 comments · 8 Years

This is the most important point that will affect US. Let's say the backdoor affect 0.1% of US citizen from the govt. But it will affect 100% of US spy/diplomat. Not to mention US/UK citizens who live or travel to different country. So what can they use? A dumb phone or burn phone? And after 1 year of the release of the FBIos, it will be available in dark web of $100 a pop.

BTW, App for AI's forum is the worst I ever see. It is impossible to edit the text after typed.
Thanks

Vic Lau

spacekid 184 comments · 13 Years

ceek74 said:

If Apple is forced to create the "backdoor", I say Apple should open-source it and level the playing field. This way Comey would have a legacy to be truly proud of.

Currently, Apple is not being forced to create a "backdoor" but rather disable one of the security features on a specific iPhone.

I think Sewell has finally mentioned the real fear, that is other countries could force Apple to do the same for them. Unfortunately for Apple, the cat is out of the bag. Now that they know about it, what's to keep them from requesting it now? China could prevent any sales in their country unless they have the ability to compromise a phone's security.