Cook talks to ABC News about creating iPhone backdoor
Tonight, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave an exclusive interview to ABC Nightly News, David Muir, regarding the request of the Justice Department for Apple to provide a way to hack into the iPhone of Syed Farook. Farook, along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 and injured 22 at a training session and holiday party in December. Cook told Muir that Apple has cooperated with the FBI’s requests, but will not create software that will leave hundreds of thousands of people vulnerable.
“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,” he said. “We believe that is a very dangerous operating system.”
Cook also stated that had Apple been involved sooner, they could have advised the FBI and government administration on how to retrieve information from the phone. As it is, the FBI attempted the crack the pass code, but failed and that caused the phone to be “permanently inaccessible”.
It’s a complex issue that would end up putting customers at risk and crush their civil liberties. Cook said that it’s a matter of security as well as privacy for Apple customers. He made the comment that people have more person information on their phones than they do in their homes. And, he’s probably right.
Cook told Muir that they have given the FBI everything they have. “We don’t know that there’s any information on the phone. We don’t know whether there is or there isn’t. And the FBI doesn’t know. … What we do know is we passed all of the information that we have on the phone and to get additional information on it or at least what the FBI would like us to do now would expose hundreds of millions of people to issues.”
He went on to sat that, “This case is not about one phone,” Cook said. “This case is about the future. … If we knew a way to get the information on the phone — that we haven’t already given — if we knew a way to do this, that would not expose hundreds of millions of other people to issues, we would obviously do it. … Our job is to protect our customers.”
To watch the extended interview, visit ABCnews.go.com.
