In an all-hands memo to Apple employees and a public Q&A, Tim Cook asked the Justice Department to withdraw a court order that would force Apple to unlock the San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone, saying the company has already done everything within its power and the law to help in the case. Apple’s Q&A asserts that while the FBI might claim to not want a master key to the iPhone, that is exactly what it would get.
“In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks,” the company explains. “Of course Apple would do our best to protect that key, but in a world where all of our data is under constant threat, it would be relentlessly attacked by hackers and cybercriminals. As recent attacks on the IRS systems and countless other data breaches have shown, no one is immune to cyber attacks.”
